Etisalat, the UAE's leading telecom operator, has joined hands with the National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) to offer mobile point of sale (mPoS) solutions to merchants in the UAE enabling quick and efficient process of card payments for all customers.

This pioneering collaboration between the two organizations makes their vision of placing the technology that makes mobile card payment based ecommerce a reality into the hands of merchants across the UAE.

Khalifa Al Shamsi, the chief digital services officer, said: "Etisalat’s partnership with NBAD is significant as it provides mobile merchants and service providers an added value to offer customers flexibility in making payments from different business locations."

"This gives retailers a competitive advantage and ultimate convenience to their large customer base," he noted.

According to him, the solution allows merchants to use smartphones with a free downloadable application from Etisalat.

This, along with the mPoS reader, which plugs into the smartphone’s headphone jack is a simple plug and play setup. Once linked up to NBAD’s merchant account, vendors will be able to accept payments within minutes, added Al Shamsi.

Commenting on the move, Abdulla Al Otaiba, the senior GM (Retail and Commercial-Gulf) NBAD, said: "Today, customers demand the convenience of being able to make card payments for all their goods and services. Businesses will soon be able to address this demand through the mPoS solution we have developed with Etisalat."

The mPoS solution is particularly well suited for SMEs that were previously unable to deploy the infrastructure to process card payment payments and any businesses operating outside of traditional retail environments, such as fast food and other kinds of delivery service, he explained.

The regional telecom giant will be demonstrating its mPoS solution at its stand in Gitex.-TradeArabia News Service