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Knet Transactions Soar In First Ten Months Of 2021
Data on digital transactions show that since the spread of COVID-19 infections began in early 2020, there has been a sharp shift in choice of payment mode among people in Kuwait. Rather than conduct cash transactions, more people are now opting to use digital platforms to complete their monetary transactions.
This shift in choice to digital payment modes is supported by evidence from data provided by Knet, the pioneer in digital payment solutions in Kuwait. According to Knet Chief Operating Officer Dalal Al-Yaqout, citizens and residents in Kuwait spent around KD18 billion through 420 million transactions using Knet channels during the first ten months of 2021.
The spending included nearly KD9.5 billion through 282 transactions on point of sale devices, and about KD8.5 billion from 138 million transactions through electronic payments and cash withdrawals from ATMs.
Al-Yaqout explained that there had been a growth of more than 50 percent in terms of both the number and value of transactions, since the beginning of this year until the end of October, relative to the same period in 2020.
She added that on average around 940,000 operations are conducted through points of sale daily, for an average rate of 28.2 million transactions per month, with their total value exceeding KD1 billion per month on average. At peak periods, the company witnessed as many as 89,000 transactions per hour through point of sale machines inside Kuwait.
She added, the most active consumer sectors through POS payments in Kuwait last September was the restaurants sector, accounting for 20 percent of the total, followed by the cooperative societies sector which accounted for 18 percent of transactions. The fast food sector notched 9 percent of transactions and gas stations accounted for 4 percent of the total transactions.
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 underline that the company’s point of sale devices had a high degree of security and protection built-in to secure and protect customer data, including hardware and software designed to specifically thwart attempts at penetrating and hijacking transactions.
The COO of Knet revealed that currently there were around 82,000 POS devices in the Kuwait market, and the number of these devices were growing at the rate of about 7 percent compared to the end of October 2020, when the number of POS devices in use was about 765,000.
She explained that more than 93 percent of the points of sale devices that are available currently in Kuwait offer ‘GPRS’ technology for communications, while about 92 percent of the point of sale devices support Near-Field Communication (NFC) technology for contactless payment services.
With regard to Knet support for the machines in the market, Al-Yaqout clarified that the company receives on average around 16,000 requests monthly for the supply and delivery of billing papers for its POS devices. In addition, the company also receives around 4,000 requests monthly for device maintenance from merchants, said Al-Yaqout, adding that the company has a large team of engineers and support staff at Knet who handle these maintenance requests quickly and efficiently.
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SOURCEÂ TIMESKUWAIT
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