Visa, MLG Collaborate on Contactless Transit in North Africa

Visa is working with Abu Dhabi-based FinTech Multi Level Group (MLG) on a project designed to promote contactless digital solutions in North Africa.

According to a report Thursday (March 10) by Trade Arabia, the collaboration will focus on transit solutions, allowing passengers to pay for rides using contactless Visa prepaid and co-branded cards or wearable devices.

Read more: Visa Mobility Study: Most Want Contactless Payments On Public Trans

The project will also employ Visa and MLG technologies to expand digital acceptance solutions for merchants in various markets throughout North Africa.

Abdul Jabbar AL Sayegh, MLG’s group chairman, said the project will use his company’s Platform offerings — a suite of services that includes strategy, data, design, engineering, blockchain, artificial intelligence and machine learning — to promote contactless payments.

“The adoption of digital payments is becoming a necessity in public and private projects and transportation is a key area where contactless payments will make a difference, especially as we see Egypt and the entire MENA region focus more than ever on digital transformation,” said Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for NALP.

Serhan added that Visa already supports more than 450 projects around the world and will use its expertise contactless payments and urban mobility to the initiative.

Visa said it offers a series of urban mobility solutions, including “Visa Known Fare Transit” model and “Visa Ready for Transit,” which are designed to reduce infrastructure costs — from things like ticket counters and vending machines — and improve customer experience.

Last year, the company released its “Future of Urban Mobility Survey,” which found contactless payments, masks and social distancing were on the minds of commuters as they prepared to return to their workplaces following the COVID lockdowns.

A majority of respondents — 84% — who largely stopped using public transportation when the pandemic began said that they wanted to get back to their pre-COVID level of ridership.

However, 88% of the consumers Visa surveyed said they expected to have access to contactless ticketing and payment methods.