We had opportunity to travel to Jordan for one of assignment in Jordan and had great insights after 4 days of interactions and travels about the region as well as payment & Fintech space
First would like to share my initial thought on country and overall region
- Found country to very friendly and lively, full of warmth all around
- Country and region have definitely good physical and digital infrastructure in place
- Across regions, countries have high level of internet & mobile penetration
- Good food to eat and not to forget local flavor of Turkish Coffee
- Entire region has an advantage due to presence of young population across various countries in region from Median Age of 23 Years to 34 years
- High rate of literacy for both Men and Women
Coming on experience of understanding payment and fintech landscape in region, lots of insights such as
- Most of countries in the region have already put in regulatory sandbox for Fintechs
- Government push to setup progressive hubs like Dubai International Financial Center (DFIC), or Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), or Bahrain Fintech Bay
- Payment & Lending key areas while other sectors growing such as Insurance, Remittance, comparison, Wealth, cyber security & encryption, Big Data & Analytics
- Government and Central Banks focus on adoption of smart technologies
- Lots of activities could be seen on Wallets, Crowd Funding, Blockchain or Digital Currency (though Digital currency is currently prohibited in Jordan)
- Banking penetration on rise
- Credit Card usage, online purchases & internet payments poised for growth
Going with progress seen across the region, it is expected that we see lots of traction & innovation driven by Fintechs in the region.
Shashank Shekhar
Head of Consulting, The Digital Fifth