Indian tourists who travel to the UAE can now use the instant payment system adopted in their home country for making transactions here in UAE. They can use QR based UPI for making transactions at over 60,000 merchants across retail, hospitality, transportation and supermarket etc.
In addition, the approval for utilizing UPI is expected to widen to all types of outlets categories such as grocery stores, dining, and tourism channels such as Dubai Mall and Mall of Emirates. This system is implemented through a collaboration involving digital commerce firm Network International alongside NIPL – NPCI International Payments Ltd.
UPI is India’s largest instant payments system, with over 350 million active users. In May 2024, it processed 14.04 billion transactions. By executing UPI acceptance through its point of sales (POS) terminals, Network International will offer a safe, QR-based method for enabling cross-border payments.
This will facilitate Indian tourists and NRIs with Indian bank accounts to use UPI for transactions across the Network’s 200,000 terminals in the UAE.
Earlier this year, a partnership with Dubai-based Mashreq Bank enabled Indian citizens to use the UPI-powered PhonePe app across Mashreq’s NEOPAY Terminals across retail stores, dining outlets, as well as tourist and leisure attractions.
This statement was announced at an event held in Dubai in the presence of Satish Kumar Sivan, Consul General of India to the UAE, and senior representatives from both companies.
Landmark move
The partnership between Network and NIPL, the overseas subsidiary of the National Payments Corporation of India or NPCI, is in tandem with the UAE’s vision of us becoming one among the top ten most visited countries in the world and becoming a global commercial and business hub.
India’s outbound international tourists are expected to increase from 15 million in 2018 to 19.4 million by the year 2024 with the GCC countries being the preferred tourists from India and the UAE alone expected to receive tourists from India amounting to 5.29 million in the same year.
Ritesh Shukla, the CEO of NPCI International said, “The collaboration with Network International will help extend the UPI footprint in the UAE further. To extend UPI acceptance across various merchants across the UAE, besides enabling the ease of use of the Indian payment solution for the Indian travelers we are also helping in spreading awareness and popularizing the adoption of innovative digital payments solutions internationally.”
