NORTH AFRICA | Egyptian Fintech, PayMob, Receives Inaugural International Fintech PSP License from the Central Bank of Oman

PayMob, a leading fintech in North Africa, has obtained the Payment Service Provider (PSP) license from the Central Bank of Oman (CBO).

This achievement marks Paymob as the inaugural international fintech company to attain full licensing in the Sultanate.

Established in 2015 by Islam Shawky, Alain El Hajj, and Mostafa Menessy, Paymob serves as an infrastructure technology enabler. The company offers payment solutions that empower digital financial service providers by leveraging mobile wallet technology.

Its omni-channel gateway offers more than 40 payment solutions and empowers over 250,000 merchants with access to innovative financial services.

In 2022, the startup secured $50 million in Series B funding in order to:

• Expand its product range
• Steady its presence in the Egyptian market, and
• Expand into new markets across the Middle East and Africa

The company is backed by global and regional investors including:

• PayPal Ventures
• Kora Capital
• Clay Point Capital
• Global Ventures
• FMO
• A15
• British International Investment
• Helios Digital Ventures, and
• Nclude

In Oman, the PSP license granted to Paymob allows the company to accept and process both online and in-store payments. This capability is facilitated through its local integration with the Central Bank of Oman’s (CBO) secure payment infrastructure, OmanNet.

Oman is rapidly advancing in the digital transformation of its banking sector, aligning with the objectives of the country’s Vision 2040, which seeks to diversify its economy. Over five years, from 2018 to 2022, transactions conducted through OmanNet covering:

• ATMs
• Point-of-sale (POS), and
• e-commerce

have surged by 300%, escalating from 82.4 million transactions to 252.9 million transactions.

With this achievement, merchants in the Sultanate can now accept payments seamlessly, whether they are local or cross-border, using Paymob’s gateway. This eliminates the necessity for multiple gateway integrations.

Paymob obtained the PSP license by adhering to all regulatory requirements outlined by the CBO’s framework.

“It is a proud moment for Paymob to be the first international fintech company to receive PSP licensing in Oman.

We appreciate the vote of confidence that CBO has placed in our technology. We are committed to enabling SME growth in Oman by making cutting-edge payments solutions accessible to all merchants and processing transactions seamlessly and securely through our local gateway,” said Shawky, Co-Founder and CEO of Paymob.