Revenue collected via eDirham surges 21% to Dh8.2bn

eDirham, the official electronic payment platform for collection of revenues and service fees of governmental and semi-governmental institutions, has reported the e-collection of Dh8.2 billion in 2015, a 21 per cent increase compared to Dh6.78bn in 2014.

In the corresponding period, the total number of e-services grew 8 per cent, from 33.46 million to 36.14m while the total number of transactions increased from 15.17m to 16.73m, a 10 per cent growth.

Launched by the UAE Ministry of Finance in 2001, eDirham is a cashless payment system that adopts efficient, secure, state-of-the-art and world-class technologies; the first step in creating an e-government in the UAE.

The number of eDirham ‘Alhaslah’ cards issued reached 639,000 from 595,000, a 7.4 per cent growth over the same period. The total number of cards reached 1.8m, which can be used across 5,000 eDirham Point of Sale (POS) devices across the UAE.

Since the launch of eDirham G2, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) in partnership with the National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD), a total of 100 million e-service transactions with a total value of Dh21.66bn has been collected.

“These figures reflect the value added by the eDirham to the UAE’s financial sector, as part of the country’s smart government initiatives. The 2015 results prove that the speed and efficiency of the eDirham system ensures the maximum utilisation of time, effort and resources,” said Saeed Rashid Al Yateem, Assistant Undersecretary of Resources and Budget Sector at MoF.

“MoF continues to innovate and with the automation of revenue collection, government institutions and companies are now able to generate detailed, real-time databases and reports that are vital in their decision making and future planning,” he said.

“The 2015 results confirm the ever increasing importance of eDirham system as an affordable means of payment for public and private services as well as a revenue collection that is efficient, convenient, user friendly,” said Saif Al Shehhi, Senior Managing Director- UAE Government & VVIP Clients at NBAD.

“In line with the UAE’s move towards smart government, the eDirham system supports the latest mobile applications, offering the e-Wallet and payment through various other channels. The variety of choices and channels include the ‘Al Haslah’ pre-paid cards, ATM/CDM machines, POS terminals, e-commerce payment systems over the internet and through smart phones, as well as self-service e-kiosks,” Al Shehhi added.

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.