The UAE ministry of finance has collected Dh7.84 billion ($2.13 billion) government revenue through e-Dirham payment gateway in 2016.

The number of e-Dirham service transactions conducted through the e-Dirham system rose by 6.94 per cent during 2016.

The federal government revenue collected through the e-Dirham payment gateway hit Dh2.81 billion during 2016; while the revenue through the service centers reached Dh5.03 billion during the same year.

The number of service transactions done through the e-Dirham system amounted to 38,650,873 transactions, representing an increase of 6.94 per cent compared to 2015; while the total payment receipts rose by 18.7 per cent to yield 19,852,961 receipts in 2016, as compared to 2015.

The total number of e-Dirham cards issued amounted to 2,413,794 cards in 2016, representing an increase of 37.26 per cent compared to 1,758,609 in 2015.

The average execution time for Web transactions through e-Dirham network is now only 1.09 seconds, whereas the average execution time for the transactions through the e-Dirham POS devices is only 1.1 seconds.

Commenting on the achievements, Saeed Rashid Al Yateem, the assistant undersecretary for resources and budget sector at MoF said: "The e-Dirham services have achieved positive results by increasing revenue this year, contributing to government revenues, and increasing time efficiency whilst completing various transactions."

"The system’s popularity confirms customer confidence in the smart services provided on which we are working to constantly develop and update. These achievements have also led several ministries and local federal entities in addition to a number of private entities and printing offices, to adopt the e-Dirham system as a cashless payment channel," he added.

Last year, the e-Dirham system won the Special Merit Award for Government to Business and Customer (G2BC) recognizing outstanding institutions in the payments industry. This confirms the significant success of the e-Dirham system, the smart substitute of cash during 2015.

Yateem said: "We are proud of the progress made by the e-Dirham system and the high demand of customers from different entities to use this smart service. This reflects our success in keeping up with the current changes and adopting the latest technologies with which we compete with advanced developing countries."

"We adopted this system following our belief in the need to implement smart solutions for government services that meet the needs of individuals and institutions accurately and efficiently, as well as with the highest protection and security levels," he added.

The Ministry has previously launched a number of e-Dirham services and products in partnership with the National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) during 2016, to improve customer experience, increase the efficiency and effectiveness of electronic payment and transaction collection in both government and private sectors.

These include direct debit, credit for eD-Wallet balance from the user’s bank through eDirect, and payments by direct transfers from the customer’s bank account to the service provider’s bank account in both public and business sectors through eDebit.

Additionally, e-Dirham self-service kiosks enable purchase and recharge of e-Dirham cards, issue eD-Vouchers, allow payment of service fees for public services amongst many others.

Suvrat Saigal, the managing director and head of global retail banking at NBAD, said: "The performance figures of the e-Dirham system during 2016 reflect the ongoing trust of customers and individuals from companies and government entities in the system and in adopting a secure and easy method of payment."

NBAD, he stated, was working hand in hand with the Ministry of Finance to assess the potential of further developing the e-Dirham system to facilitate its use by clients of government departments, private companies and individuals.

"Our role at NBAD is to provide our extensive expertise in electronic payment and collection systems, creating solutions that ensure safe, easy and efficient transactions through relevant platforms and frameworks, such as the self-service kiosk," explained Saigal.

"This direction allows to facilitate payment and collection methods, increase adoption of innovative payment systems and integrating existing systems while maintaining the element of flexibility to meet the current and future needs of customers," he added.-TradeArabia News Service