Ahmed Al Enezi, CEO, stc pay • Interview
Stc pay leads the fintech sector in the region with its innovative payment solutions in line with the growing demand for convenience and contactless solutions.
stc pay graduated from SAMA’s sandbox relatively recently, one of only two fintech firms to do so. What allowed you to excel in this process and move to market quickly?
As part of stc pay’s vision and commitment to be the leading regional operator in the field of fintech, we started looking at the services roadmap a few years ago. We saw many complexities in the financial sector and not enough focus on the actual customer journey map as one of the major factors in achieving this vision. We believe that we should go back to the basics, offering simplicity, security, and convenience to our customers and injecting that into our services, starting from the design phase moving into the strategy. Everyone should “simply take control” of their financials, whenever, wherever they are. We believe nothing is impossible to create the future we want, and that is key to excel, lead the industry, and persevere when it gets tough. You must have a great passion in order to succeed. The second thing is SAMA’s blessing in launching the fintech Saudi initiative that aims to support the financial technology ecosystem by transforming Saudi Arabia into a fintech hub that harbors a flourishing and proficient ecosystem. It is also aimed at lifting the SME sector, diversifying the domestic economy, and creating job opportunities.
What was your experience throughout the pandemic? How did you react initially, and what patterns have you seen in spending and data since it began?
Today, Saudi Arabia is notably more advanced than any country in the region or globally in the payment sector. It has the infrastructure, and the government had already started e-government before the COVID-19 pandemic. For many activities, the base was already there, and all we needed was a trigger to promote it, get people to start using it, and build their confidence in it. After months of lockdown and social distancing as a result of COVID-19, consumers were forced to pay differently around the world and across sectors, fully relying on online and cashless payments for everything, pushing toward a cashless society. As we are a fully digital platform that came to remove hassles and provide digital wheels of financial controls, we were ready for such a pandemic. Our product has no mediator and offers directly to customers through digital solutions. SAMA increasing the purchase limit (supporting NFC technology) from SAR10,000 to SAR20,000 to support digital payments and digital solutions for a single transaction with no need to enter PIN played a vital role in increasing the demand for contactless payment.
What key trends enabled this rapid growth?
There is a unique formula that helped in forming stc pay. One main component is our young generation. In today’s world, with 70% of the region’s population are youth, wanting everything instantly, including financial services. We designed a product that fulfilled those needs offering international payments at the lowest rates in the market with the easiest, most simple steps. It is easy to split a bill between friends at a restaurant and receive the money in less than a minute using a phone number only. The Eid holidays occurred during the pandemic, and to preserve society’s traditions and keep them alive during those hard times when no one was allowed to carry cash, we launched the “Eidya” campaign a few days ahead to celebrate early this time. The campaign was shared by millions of users across the Kingdom and the Gulf region, reaching a significant milestone with over 900,000 transactions within four days only. Another great project we worked on during the pandemic was to develop a payment system for all delivery companies, including Mrsool. They wanted to accept digital payments but did not know how to provide this to the handler or driver of shipments. We worked tirelessly to develop a great service that they could use during and after the outbreak.