Paymob and Tamara form partnership in boost to MENA’s SMEs

Paymob, a financial services enabler in the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan, has teamed up with shopping and payments platform Tamara to “fuel SME growth”.

Tamara’s buy now, pay later (BNPL) service, which operates in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, will integrate with Paymob’s secure gateway to create a payments ecosystem for merchants that enables them to offer more flexible payment solutions.

The agreement between Paymob and Tamara is designed to accelerate SME growth in MENA, which are the largest contributors to GDP in the region.

The first phase of the partnership will rollout to merchants in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates initially, with more countries planned to go live in later stages.

Customers of the merchants will be able to split their payments into four, without any hidden fees or interest being applied.

L-R: Tamara’s Turki Bin Zarah and Paymob’s Islam Shawky

Islam Shawky, co-founder and chief executive officer of Paymob said that the partnership with Tamara delivers on Paymob’s “mission” to fuel SME growth in the digital economy.

“There is a massive opportunity to enable merchants in the GCC to capitalize on the power of alternative payment methods and we are thrilled to partner with Tamara to fuel this growth in MENA,” said Shawky.

According to Tamara, its BNPL solution helps merchants achieve a 40% increase in average order value, 15% higher online conversion rates, and an increase of 50% in repeat purchases.

Turki Bin Zarah, co-founder and chief commercial officer of Tamara, added: “This partnership with Paymob provides seamless access to Tamara’s services to thousands of SMEs to enable their growth across the region.

“As a leading commerce enabler, we are revolutionizing how people shop, pay, and bank and are thrilled to partner with Paymob as we deliver on this goal.”

Tamara recently secured a $150 million debt facility from Goldman Sachs.

Paymob, which serves more than 250,000 merchants in the region through its omnichannel payments infrastructure, launched operations in Pakistan in 2021, followed by the UAE in 2022.

Last year, it received Saudi Payments Payment Technical Services Provider certification, enabling it to launch in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.