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Amazon Launches Fintech Lab In North Africa

June 19, 2021

The Amazon Fintech Lab is located in the DIFC Innovation Hub and is run by Amazon Payment Services, a payment processing service for the Middle East and North Africa area.
According to reports, the project is the latest in Amazon Payment Services’ attempts to help the MENA Fintech sector. The Lab’s goal is to provide a venue for conversation on virtual payments and the Middle East’s Fintech future.

Omar Soudodi, Managing Director of Amazon Payment Services — **Omar Soudodi**, Managing Director of Amazon Payment Services

The objective of the Amazon Fintech Lab is to encourage Fintech innovation through networking and cooperation possibilities with DIFC’s ecosystem of small companies, financial institutions, and early-stage startups.
The project will organize a variety of activities in which industry and ecosystem stakeholders, as well as professional teams, will participate in forums. They’ll talk about the many payment issues or pain spots and try to come up with creative ways to meet the needs.

These initiatives should help Amazon Payment Services achieve its aim of reimagining the virtual payments experience for users and merchants in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

Omar Soudodi, Managing Director of Amazon Payment Services, stated:

“Through the Amazon Fintech Lab, we work with innovators and visionaries to turn exciting new ideas and concepts into transformational and disruptive forces in fintech. The Lab also brings likeminded entrepreneurs and start-ups together with new and existing business partners to cultivate innovation in the fintech and digital services arena, supported by Amazon’s global expertise on new products and services, and knowledge sessions on topics related to the payments sector.”

Arif Amiri, CEO at Dubai International Financial Centre Authority, remarked:

“We welcome Amazon Payment Services’ first Fintech lab in the world at the Innovation Hub in DIFC. By choosing DIFC, Amazon has the ideal platform to grow given they are now part of the Middle East, Africa and South Asia’s largest and comprehensive financial, technology and innovation ecosystem. We are looking forward to working together to drive the future of finance.”

Amazon Fintech Lab Africa Amazon Fintech Lab (North Africa

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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.
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Amazon Comes To North Africa, Launches Payment Services

December 15, 2020

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*

“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.

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.