Biggest merchant acquirers in MEA 2017-2022, based on number of transactions
Acquirers from South Africa, the UAE and Saudi Arabia were responsible for 80 percent of Visa and Mastercard transactions in the MEA region in 2022. Merchant acquirers are companies that enable card payments from the likes of Visa and Mastercard, and are typically banks or fintechs that facilitate the (local) payment systems. Providers from South Africa, especially, top this particular ranking since its initial release in 2017. Debit cards increasingly took over from cash in POS transactions in South Africa during this time. The share of cash in Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, was much higher still in 2022.
