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The Paypers Feature Article: Visa, NBK and Zain working towards NFC mobile payments in Kuwait

Friday 30 October 2009 10:59 CET | News

The mobile payment market in Middle East is currently witnessing steady growth and, as a result, market projections are optimistic: by 2010, gross transaction value of mobile payments in Middle East and Africa will reach USD 5.17 billion, according to an IEMR report. Visa has partnered the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) and telecommunications operator Zain to roll out a NFC mobile payment trial in the country, using NFC enabled Nokia 6212 devices. In April 2009, Visa used the same NFC-enabled handsets, as part of an agreement with Nokia, to make NFC payments available in Malaysia.

Through this initiative, one of the objectives the companies aim to meet is to get participating consumers familiar with the concept of smart posters, enabling them to collect retail offers which can be redeemed for purchases at outlets. Smart posters contain one or more embedded NFC tags. By tapping a NFC enabled mobile phone on a smart poster, the customer is automatically connected to a back-end content server over the wireless data network. According to a recent study released by Juniper Research, NFC smart poster applications open up enormous market opportunities. The application of NFC as a mobile retail marketing device via coupons and smart posters will lead to an increase in the NFC mobile payment transaction values from USD 8 billion in 2009 to USD 30 billion within three years.

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Keywords: Visa, NBK, Zain, NFC, Nokia, mobile payment, IEMR, Juniper Research
Categories: Payments & Commerce
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Countries: World
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Payments & Commerce