Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Studies around the world are showing that carrying cash will soon be a thing of the past as people are using their smartphones to pay for goods and services.
Research conducted by one of UK’s largest bus operators, for example, has found that 44 per cent of its travellers making a payment at the checkout counter don’t have actual cash in hand to pay.
More than 2,000 people have found that different methods including chip and pin or smartphone payments are far more popular at the till and a quarter of them said that they don’t even have time to go to an ATM to withdraw cash.
Bahrain has also joined the cashless community concept and continues to create various channels to help make regular payments more convenient with a click of a button.
BENEFIT, the key conduit for all electronic financial transactions throughout Bahrain, has teamed up with one of the kingdom’s gateway payment channels, SADAD, has launched BenefitPay to help people pay their monthly utility bills, schools and university tuitions fees, monthly phone bills, top-up vouchers and more simply by using a smartphone. People can also renew motor insurance, buy cinema tickets, buy online shopping gift cards and gaming vouchers using this service.
Abdulwahed AlJanahi, chief executive officer of BENEFIT, said “We always strive to build alliances and collaborations that facilitates Bahrain’s vision in the field of promoting a cashless society, especially in electronic financial transactions and including this unique service.”
BenefitPay is available for use in more than 800 SADAD self-service kiosks located around the kingdom. The kiosk will generate a QR code on the screen for the customer to scan using the BenefitPay application and within three seconds the payment is successfully completed.
“This service will enable another step towards our vision to provide a cashless payment society in Bahrain,” said Shaikh Ali Bin Abdulla Bin Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa, chairman, of SADAD. “We are a technology first company and technology to enable secure, simple and frictionless payments has always been our agenda since our formation.”
According to a representative, this service also ensures the utmost levels of security and cancels the need for card information sharing with only a onetime registration required to save Bank account and Debit Card details.
The National Bank of Bahrain has also partnered with SADAD and BENEFIT on this initiative to support the direction set by the Bahrain Economic Development Board and the Central Bank of Bahrain.
Jean-Christophe Durand, chief executive officer of the National Bank of Bahrain, said: “All the partners are looking forward to activating BenefitPay through the self-service kiosks widely available in shopping malls, commercial and service establishments. This will reduce cash transactions and facilitate electronic payments as a preferred method of payment.”
