Citizens, Residents Spent 18 Billion Dinars In 10 Months Using Knet Devices

Dalal Al-Yaqout, Chief Operating Officer of Knet, said citizens and residents in Kuwait spent about KD 18 billion during the first 10 months of 2021 through Knet channels, spending approximately KD 9.5 billion through the point of sale devices, while they spent about 8.5 billion dinars through electronic payments and cash withdrawals from ATMs.

In an exclusive interview with Al-Anba, Al-Yaqout explained the total payments transactions recorded by Knet during the first 10 months of this year was 420 million, through the implementation of 282 million payment transactions through point of sale devices, while about 138 million transactions were executed through electronic payments — cash withdrawals from ATMs.

Al-Yaqout said there has been a growth of more than 50% for all the company’s operations in terms of the number and value of transactions, since the beginning of this year, until the end of last October, compared to the same period in 2020, explaining that more than 940,000 operations are conducted through points of sale daily, at an average rate of 28.2 million transactions per month, and their value exceeds one billion dinars per month on average, noting that at peak time, more than 89,000 transactions are performed per hour through point of sale machines inside Kuwait.

She pointed out that the value of payment transactions registered with Knet during September was about one billion dinars, and explained that it is an unprecedented record level in the value of monthly transactions of points of sale in the Kuwaiti market.

She added, the most active consumer sectors through POS payments in Kuwait last September was the restaurants sector, accounting for 20% of the total, 18% for cooperative societies, 9% for the fast food sector, and 4% for gas stations.

Al-Yaqout said consumers in Kuwait tend to rely on the use of electronic means to complete payments via the Internet or through point-of-sale devices, in exchange for reducing dependence on cash, since the beginning of the spread of the Corona pandemic, which led to a boom in the value of POS transactions, especially during September.

She went on to say, the company’s point of sale devices enjoy a high degree of security and protection to secure customer data, noting that it has international quality certificates, in addition to the company’s possession of hardware and software to protect transactions against any penetration that may occur.

The company’s POS devices, she said, have diversified since the beginning of its work in 1995 until today, as the company currently offers its customers more than 10 types of POS devices, in addition to many services related to these devices, which include: connecting and maintaining devices, providing all their accessories, and Through a department specialized in the company for these services.

She added that the number of POS devices currently in the Kuwaiti market is about 82,000 as at the end of October 2021, with a growth rate of about 7%, compared to the end of October 2020, when the number of POS devices in Kuwait reached about 76.5 thousand.

She explained that more than 93% of the points of sale devices that are currently offered in the Kuwaiti market contain “GPRS” technology for communications, while about 92% of the point of sale devices support “NFC” technology, or contactless payment.

Al-Yaqout said the company receives on a monthly basis about 16,000 requests for the supply and delivery of billing papers for the POS devices, and it receives an average of about 4,000 requests for device maintenance from merchants on a monthly basis, stressing that the company has a huge team of employees to meet these requests.

 

SOURCE  :   TIMES KUWAIT

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