Amazon Comes To North Africa, Launches Payment Services

Global ecommerce company Amazon has arrived North Africa fully and in a ground-breaking way. The trillion dollar company has announced the launch of Amazon Payment Services (APS) in the MENA zone (Middle East and North Africa). Apart from payments, this is a major boost to its ecommerce platform in the region.

Omar Soudodi, Managing Director, Amazon Payment Services
Omar Soudodi, Managing Director, Amazon Payment Services

“Today’s launch marks another key milestone in Amazon’s promise to build the future of digital payments in the region, empowering businesses to provide user-friendly payment experience for their end-users… Amazon Payment Services is a natural next step in our journey, focusing on four fundamental pillars of trust, convenience, selection and pricing, underpinned by a best-in-class experience focused on reliability, scale and operational excellence,” said Omar Soudodi, Managing Director, Amazon Payment Services. 

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In 2017, Amazon acquired PAYFORT as part of the Souq Group acquisition. Founded in 2013, PAYFORT is a startup based in the United Arab Emirates that provides payment solutions to customers across the Middle East through FORT, its payments gateway.

With the launch of Amazon Payment Services, businesses that use the FORT service will continue to have access to a range of payment services that enables them to accept online payments using both global and local payment methods, offer instalments to the customers to make purchases affordable for their customers, and monitor payment performance round the clock. In simple terms, as of today, PAYFORT is now Amazon Payment Services.

“Our partnership with PAYFORT has extended for more than three years. And now, with the tremendous growth in Meeza customer base, we look forward to drive far more business impact through our partnership with Amazon. We are upbeat about the launch of Amazon Payment Services in Egypt, which we believe, will bring domestic online shopping into a new threshold.” Said Tarek Raouf, Egyptian Banks Company, Executive Chairman and CEO.

Amazon Payment Services also has a wide range of partners, including banks such as RAKBANK, First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), Mashreq, The Saudi British Bank (SABB), Al Rajhi Bank, Riyad Bank and National Commercial Bank (NCB). Partners also include local card schemes such as MADA, and Meeza, and international card schemes such as Visa, and MasterCard.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer