K-Net played major role during COVID-19 crisis, says Al-Majed

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Company worked on creating new strategy for a 5-year period

KUWAIT CITY, Dec 23: Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Shared Automated Banking Services Company (K-Net) Adel Al-Majed says the company played a major role in contributing to overcoming the challenges and difficulties that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic by continuing to provide all electronic payment services, reports Al-Anba daily. In a speech at the company’s general assembly held on Tuesday during which it approved all the agenda items, Al-Majed said,”K-Net continued, and is still continuing, to carry out updates and develop its network to support the largest number of merchants and customers during the pandemic.

The company coordinated with Kuwaiti banks to expand the use of their services in banking activity. It launched several electronic payment services and solutions in the market during 2021. These had supported the state in confronting and reducing the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic”. Meanwhile, the CEO of K-Net Abdullah Al-Ajmi said, “The general index for the performance of electronic payment operations in 2021 witnessed an increase by 46 percent to achieve approximately 558 million payment transactions, which amounted to nearly KD 27 billion, including 21 billion for electronic payment and points of sale. This means that 80 percent of the transactions were carried out without the use of cash”. He highlighted a recent report that revealed that the circulation of cash has decreased in Kuwait.

Tripled
Al-Ajmi explained that the cash numbers are currently close to the level of the numbers for the year 2014/2015, despite the increase in the population. Electronic payments tripled during the COVID-19 crisis, and did not decrease with the opening of the markets. People continued to pay electronically when normal life resumed, and the cash channel decreased to more than 30 percent. He went on to explain that the company worked on creating a new strategy for a period of five years, and the strategy was approved. It includes three main axes related to the development of current services in terms of devices and new payment methods, restructuring the company, and developing it with human and technical resources and young faces that it attracted from the local and foreign market. It also worked on building completely new services based on a study of the local market.

A few new services were identified, discussed and studied. Some of them have been approved, and others are awaiting approval. New services are expected to be introduced soon. Regarding whether the establishment of digital banks and payment platforms is a challenge for the company, Al-Ajmi indicated that the matter is very excellent, as the digital transformation that accompanied COVID-19 crisis revealed that people have the ability to deal with any new technology. He said, “Suddenly we are able to do everything while we are at home”. Al-Ajmi stressed that any opportunity for digitization will find acceptance among people, as there are two banks that have announced digital banks, adding, “I think more are to come”. He indicated that the online portal of K-Net has more than 2,000 participants.

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