NEWS
Saudi Payments launches instant payments system ‘ sarie ’
Kingdom ’ s financial ecosystem , mainly through the adoption of faster payments and improvements to banking reconciliation .
Fahad Al-Akeel , Managing Director , Saudi Payments , said : “ The instant payments system sarie can enable us to drive usage and engagement across the Saudi payments ecosystem of banks and businesses .
It can help lay the foundation for new payments business initiatives , encouraging financial inclusion and banking reconciliation of Saudi banks .
Fahad Al-Akeel , Managing Director , Saudi Payments
“ We welcome this momentous collaboration with IBM and Mastercard . It is a huge step forward that aligns with our ongoing smart solutions and payments modernisation strategy , aimed towards achieving the assigned goals in vision 2030 .”
Saudi Payments , under the supervision of the Saudi Central
Bank ( SAMA ) announced the launch of Saudi Arabia ’ s instant payments system ‘ sarie ’ in cooperation with IBM and Mastercard .
The collaboration marks a key milestone for payments innovation in the region and is aligned with Saudi Payments ’ aim to improve the
Maria Medvedeva , Vice President and Country Business Development Lead , Saudi Arabia , Mastercard , said : “ This is a significant milestone in our real-time payments journey and is the result of hard work . Saudi Arabia is an important market for Mastercard and we anticipate that with this real-time payment system going live in the MEA region , many doors may soon open for ongoing innovation , both in the Kingdom and further afield .”
Nokia and UN Women collaborate to promote inclusion and diversity in MEA
Nokia and UN Women have together launched four pilot projects to bolster inclusion and diversity for equality . These pilots aim to address four different areas such as increasing the number of women employees , raising awareness of cervical cancer and uterine fibroids , promoting Science , Technology , Engineering and Mathematics ( STEM ) education and empowering gender-based violence victims .
We strongly believe that equality will unleash the full potential of young girls and women to become innovators , entrepreneurs and leaders for a better world .”
After the successful execution of the pilots , the two organisations plan to roll these projects out in more countries across the Middle East and Africa ( MEA ) region .
Anita Bhatia , Deputy Executive Director , Resource Management , Sustainability and Partnerships , UN Women , stated : “ When women prosper , societies and economies grow with them .
“ Starting with these pilots , our collaboration with Nokia is designed to create and celebrate a more just and inclusive environment so that more and more women will emerge as global agents of change .”
Nicole Arian Markazi , Head , UN Women Programme Lead , Nokia , said : “ We , at Nokia , are committed to inclusion and diversity to drive equal opportunity . By collaborating with UN Women in Saudi Arabia , Tanzania , Kenya and South Africa , we strengthen this commitment .
12 INTELLIGENTCIO MIDDLE EAST www . intelligentcio . com