Cashless transactions in Bahrain surged by 50 percent year-on-year to $744 million in August after reaching nearly $4 billion in the first half of the year, the country’s central bank said on Tuesday.
The total number of payments made online and through point-of-sale (POS) machines reached 11.3 million during the month, up by 65 percent compared to the same period last year.
The first half of the year saw a total of 53 million cashless payments valued at $3.62 billion, posting a 45.6 percent growth rate over the $2.4 billion worth of transactions recorded in the same period last year, according to the central bank.
Consumers shifted to digital payments at the start of the outbreak in 2020 amid concerns of COVID-19 infections and global lockdowns.
“Lockdowns last year caused a dramatic shift towards digital systems,” the central bank said.
Last year, Bahrain’s national electronic wallet, BenefitPay, reported a 785 percent increase in the number of remittances through its Fawri+ service, an online payment tool for fund transfers. Total remittances made through the digital service reached $5 million.
The European Payments Council also estimated that the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region could process around 139 billion individual non-cash transactions next year, which is 90 billion more than five years ago.
“Even before the pandemic, the GCC was embracing digital and mobile banking and payments,” noted Dalal Buhejji, executive director of business development investment origination at the Bahrain Economic Development Board.