The Finance World Magazine| Edition: August 2022

Masdar: Global leader of clean energy
Are NFTs the next revenue generation stream?
BNPL: A new replacement for credit cards?
Guidelines to keep in mind for CT
August 2022 thefinanceworld.com
SHARIF
EL-BADAWI
CEO OF
DUBAI
FUTURE
DISTRICT
FUND
UAE - AED 30 | USA - USD 8.5 | KSA - SR
60 | Qatar - QAR 30 | Oman - OMR 3.5
| Bahrain - BD 3.5 | Kuwait - KWD 2.5
| UK - £6.5 | EU - €7.5
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Opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door
– Milton Berle
In this edition, we bring you the current trends and updates from
the finance sector that include corporate results, startups, banking,
funding and investment, fintech, digital banking, and many more.
Dubai believes in creating opportunities for expansion of the business
community and creating a healthy environment for competition.
Our cover story featuring Sharif El-Badawi, CEO of Dubai Future
District Fund, highlights his ideas about the aim of bolstering economic
development in Dubai and upcoming investments in start-ups as well
as the creation of funds for new projects. Understand how UAE is
accelerating toward digital
transformation and sustainable
UAE is actively influencing and
constructing the future. It is
at the forefront of developing
an innovative paradigm in
addition to exploring and
fostering chances for growth and
prosperity. The nation aspires to
strengthen global partnerships
and international cooperation,
and also to invest in ideas that
will benefit humanity.
development from our interview
with Marwa AL Mansoori, CEO
of Prosper Partners Consultancy
and Board Member in Abu Dhabi
Chambers of Commerce and
Industry.
UAE is actively influencing
and constructing the future. It
is at the forefront of developing
an innovative paradigm in
addition to exploring and
fostering chances for growth and
prosperity. The nation aspires to
strengthen global partnerships
and international cooperation,
and also to invest in ideas that
will benefit humanity. In addition
to the latest news circulating, we also present to you UAE’s growing role
as a Fintech hub, BNPL revolution, NFTs changing the revenue stream,
and many more things.
The world of finance revolves around managing money and how to
use that money to fund projects and companies, the ongoing flow of
investment and putting them into correct sectors is what makes UAE
the evolving attraction in today’s world as well as the future. Our goal
is to provide our readers with key informational stories and keep
them updated about ongoing movements within finance impacting the
economy as a whole.
We in the media industry work towards gathering relevant and
impactful information and sending them to you now and in the future.
Under the leadership of President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin
Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE will unswervingly continue to implement its
comprehensive strategy and vision to build a sustainable knowledgebased
economy that ensures a prosperous future for generations
to come.
Meanwhile, stay safe, stay healthy.
Enjoy the read, my friends, and keep on creating opportunities.
Please recycle the magazine once you've finished reading it
August 2022 www.thefinanceworld.com 3

Contents AUGUST
PERSONAL FINANCE
P11 | Planning to begin
investing? Hear us out first!
UAE BANKING
P12 | CBUAE’s Annual Report
2021 and its analysis
P14 | UAE Banking News
P16 | UAE banks’ contributions
to GDP growth
2022
ENERGY
P08 | Masdar: Global
leader of clean energy
FINTECH
P21 | UAE’s growth as a
Fintech hub
P23 | Fintech News
BUSINESS
P24 | Business Leaders in Focus
P31 | Business News
E-COMMERCE
P32 | BNPL: A new replacement
for credit cards?
P34 | Mergers and Acquisitions
COVER
STORY
P18
Sharif El-Badawi,
CEO of Dubai Future
District Fund
4 www.thefinanceworld.com August 2022

Contents AUGUST
2022
FINTECH
P46 | Faisal Al Haroun, SVP of
Tap Payments Group
CORPORATE TAX
P52 | Guidelines to keep in mind
while corporate tax filing
INTERVIEW
P36 | Marwa Al Mansoori,
CEO of Prosper Partners
Consultancy and Board Member
in Abu Dhabi Chambers of
Commerce and Industry
START-UP
P47 | Rising flow of AI and VR
Start-ups in UAE
P50 | Start-up News
ENTREPRENEUR IN
FOCUS
P53 | Mudassir Sheikha, CEO
and Co-founder of Careem
HEALTHCARE
P59 | Healthcare Finance
Management in UAE
P62 CORPORATE RESULTS
STOCK MARKET
P64 | Union Coop Lists its shares
on DFM
P65 | Nasdaq Dubai welcomes
$3 billion worth US government
bonds
TRAVEL
P66 | Aviation industry’s
upcoming contribution to UAE
economy
P68 | LOCAL NEWS
P70 | GLOBAL NEWS
INVESTMENT & FUNDING
P39 | Different SWFs within GCC
and their ongoing investment deals
P42 | Investment and Funding
News
CRYPTOCURRENCY
P45 | Cryptocurrency News
DIGITAL ASSETS
P56 | Are NFTs
the next revenue
generation
stream?
6 www.thefinanceworld.com August 2022

Energy
Masdar: Global leader of
clean energy
The creation of a green and sustainable city in a desert landscape is the ambitious
goal for Masdar City in Abu Dhabi. The project is founded on a number of urban
planning principles, with a focus on optimal utilisation of the region’s resources.
Masdar is located in the Masdar City area of the capital Abu Dhabi—as its name
implies, it is dedicated to clean energy research development and application.
Masdar Institute also focuses on new technologies related to the sustainable
development of cities, buildings, and infrastructures.
It was founded in 2007 as an
independent, non-profit research
institute focused on advancing clean
energy technologies and sustainable
development. Its mission is to develop,
commercialize and distribute advanced
clean energy technologies that reduce
greenhouse gas emissions, enhance
resilience against climate change
impacts and improve human well-being
worldwide. It is also committed to
fostering innovation within the global
community to make these technologies
available at an affordable cost.
In 2010, the Masdar Institute was
designated by Abu Dhabi’s Crown
Prince Sheikh Mohammed as the
center for research and training in
clean energy technologies for all of the
UAE’s seven emirates. Since then, it
has been working with more than 80
universities worldwide to develop new
solutions for addressing global issues
like climate change or water scarcity.
UAE Health 2071: Masdar as the
clean energy city
The UAE is well known for its
technological achievements in
the fields of renewable energy,
biotechnology, information technology,
and advanced manufacturing. It was
ranked as the number one country in
the world for life sciences startups.
In addition to its technological
achievements, Masdar City will be
home to many innovative companies
including Tesla Motors, whose founder
Elon Musk has been advising on the
development of Masdar City’s solar
power plants.
It will be powered by solar panels
installed on rooftops throughout
the city as well as ground-mounted
arrays owned by Tesla Motors. Masdar
City’s green energy system will also
include water recycling systems
that will harvest rainwater for use
onsite through an integrated waterpurification
system.
● The UAE’s Masdar Initiative is a
new city being built to be the world’s
first carbon-neutral city of the future.
It will be completely powered by
renewable energy.
● The Masdar City of the future is
set to be an exciting and inspiring
place that will harness the latest
technologies, including solar power
and wind turbines, to help it become
a world-class city with zero carbon
emissions.
● Masdar City has been designed
with sustainability in mind, with
its construction phase focused on
reducing its environmental impact
to as little as possible. The site is
located near Abu Dhabi and next to
the existing Mohammed bin Rashid
International Airport – all of which
make it a great destination for visitors
looking for an eco-friendly experience
while they explore this region.
● Masdar City’s location makes it
ideal for people who want to visit
Abu Dhabi but don’t necessarily have
time or money for a long trip. The
city is within easy reach from Europe
through the Middle East and Asia, so
there won’t be any delays on flights or
transfers when you arrive there!
● In the not-so-distant future, city
will develop with clean energy at its
heart. Masdar City, designed by British
architect Norman Foster and home to
the International Renewable Energy
Agency (IRENA), aims to use zero
carbon and produce zero waste in the
UAE.
● The UAE’s renewable energy
pioneer is home to the Masdar Institute
of Science & Technology, a researchfocused
graduate school supported
by the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, which is committed to
advancing sustainable development
within the region.
● The superlative city will be
powered by solar panels, and will
be climate-controlled to reduce heat
and humidity via a network of vents
between buildings - the temperature
will never rise above 28 degrees
Celsius.
● All emissions produced within
8 www.thefinanceworld.com August 2022

Masdar City is expected
to be the first city in Abu
Dhabi with a complete
electrical grid powered
by renewable energy. The
clean energy will come
from a massive solar
power plant, which will
generate enough
power for more than
100,000 homes.
Masdar City will be captured and
stored underneath the streets.
● All cars will be electric but short
distances between buildings mean
commuters can walk or cycle to work
instead.
● The clean energy city has started in
Masdar and it is growing fast!
Background
Masdar, a company that is focused
on clean energy and development,
was started in Abu Dhabi by Sheik
Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
He wanted to create a place where
people could find jobs, they could
get educated, and could pursue their
dreams.
The goal was simple: create the
best city in the world. The first step
was to remove carbon dioxide from
the atmosphere; then, Masdar would
become self-sustainable. The city
would be powered by renewable
energy sources like solar and wind
power as well as geothermal heating.
It has been built to be selfsustainable
and will run entirely on
renewable energy sources—including
solar panels and wind turbines—which
will make it one of the greenest cities
in the world.
The project has since grown into one
of the most prominent clean energy
projects in the world, with significant
interest from other governments,
corporations, and private investors
looking for successful examples of
sustainable development.
Soon, Masdar City is expected to
be the first city in Abu Dhabi with a
complete electrical grid powered by
renewable energy. The clean energy
will come from a massive solar power
August 2022 www.thefinanceworld.com 9

Energy
The development
of a new city in the
north, which will be
built on top of the
existing city. The
new city will be
designed to be more
environmentally
friendly and
sustainable than
the current city. It
will also have more
space for business
and commercial
development.
plant, which will generate enough
power for more than 100,000 homes.
The project has been developed by
Masdar Institute and is part of a wider
effort to reduce carbon emissions and
improve energy efficiency in the city.
This means that instead of using fossil
fuels, the city’s power will come from
clean sources such as wind and solar
energy.
Masdar City is already home to
other green initiatives including an
innovative waste management system
that has been in operation since 2013.
The system uses local composting
facilities and compost bins that can
collect organic waste from restaurants,
hotels, and shops in the city center.
Upcoming projects and
development in Masdar
Masdar City will be home to some of
the most advanced technologies in the
world.
In addition to its role as a global
center for energy and clean technology,
Masdar City will also become one
of the most innovative cities on
Earth. The city will be home to an
established research and development
community, with programs in genetics,
nanotechnology, and renewable energy.
The city will also host an innovation
hub called “The Hub” that will bring
together all types of industries under
one roof to encourage collaboration
between businesses and scientists.
The development of a new city in
the north, which will be built on top of
the existing city. The new city will be
designed to be more environmentally
friendly and sustainable than the
current city. It will also have more
space for business and commercial
development.
As the world’s first carbon-neutral
city, Masdar is constantly working to
develop new solutions for the energy
and environmental challenges facing
our planet.
To support these efforts, Masdar
has recently announced several new
projects and developments. These
include:
- A new solar power plant in Abu
Dhabi that will produce enough clean
energy to power more than 1,000
homes at full capacity.
- The construction of a new research
center dedicated to developing
renewable energy technologies.
- A new green building certification
program that allows companies to
reduce their carbon footprint by
up to 30%.
This project aimed to create a
community in Abu Dhabi that would be
sustainable, economic, and efficient.
Many challenges face development
and clean energy is one of them.
Countries like China have massive
challenges concerning climate change,
but it isn’t necessarily us who has to
fix the problem. We can instead help
new cities like Masdar become more
sustainable. Even more important than
the creation of the project was the
education that came from it. Learning
how to build new structures in a
more stable and natural environment
was an amazing lesson for future
generations to come. The result may
be a community like no other, but its
biggest impact will be on what energy
and technology look like for the next
generation of developers.
10 www.thefinanceworld.com August 2022

Personal Finance
Planning to begin investing? Hear us out first!
Money management is an art and is often considered a tough game to crack.
Personal finance is an amalgamation of an individual’s earnings, savings,
and expenses totally based on their needs, wants, and preferences. Personal
financing provides ease when it comes to future financial stability and a better
standard of living.
Income, expenses, savings,
investments, and protection
are the five major aspects that
affect personal finances and play
a significant part in decisionmaking.
Rent, payments, taxes, and
other expenses are examples of
expenditures, whereas income is the
steady flow of cash. Bonds, mutual
funds, fixed deposits, stocks, and
other investment vehicles are used to
diversify income sources or ensure
financial stability in the future. Savings
are often the funds left over after
all costs and investments, whereas
protection includes things like
financial stability, life insurance, health
insurance, and many other types of
insurance.
Tracking our own finances is one of
several considerations that must be
made before making any investment.
A budget should be created in advance
that diversifies savings, income, and
expenses for effective management.
Individuals should have an emergency
fund in addition to budgeting. Tax
management is an art because there
are various legal ways to avoid paying
taxes that may be claimed as tax
deductions and credits. There are
numerous ways to invest, some of
which involve stocks or even loans,
and as a result, investments can be
challenging.
One of the most crucial things a
person can do with their money is
making financial growth. There are
many people who intend to make
investments in various economic areas,
but many of them struggle to choose
what and where to do so. Before
making any investment, it’s crucial
to use caution when weighing your
possibilities.
Before making any investment,
there are several factors to consider,
including capital, alternatives, risk
tolerance, risk at hand, and most
crucially, the expected profits. There
are numerous investing prospects, but
they frequently exceed our means.
Choosing what to invest in requires
careful consideration of the capital
available. While some investments just
need a single payment, others require
ongoing monthly contributions.
There are three main asset
classes—stocks, bonds, and cash.
Market conditions that favor one
asset’s performance frequently
result in mediocre or subpar results
for the other category. When an
asset category’s investment return
declines, investors are still able to
make up for their losses by making
substantially superior investment
returns in other asset categories.
A budget should be created in
advance that diversifies savings,
income, and expenses for effective
management. Individuals should
have an emergency fund in
addition to budgeting.
One must consider whether they
want their money to increase quickly
while making any investments and
whether taking risks is a necessary
component. Similar considerations
include wanting to protect one’s
capital in the safest manner or keeping
it from depreciating in value. These
inquiries or understandings enable
the investor to make better use of the
available investment opportunities by
enabling them to determine the type of
investment product that is suitable.
Many people occasionally make
investments without thinking about
what would be best for them, which
can lead to several financial issues in
addition to losses. One must be clear
in their plan and understand what they
hope to get out of future investments of
this nature.
August 2022 www.thefinanceworld.com 11

UAE Banking
CBUAE’s Annual Report 2021 and its analysis
The United Arab Emirates
central bank’s annual report
provides information on the
steps taken to promote the
nation’s economic recovery
and expanding financial
sector. The country’s GDP success
is discussed in the annual report,
along with how the financial system is
positioned to help the UAE’s economy
as it enters a recovery phase. GDP
growth showed an uptick to 3.8 percent
in 2021 and is anticipated to soar to 5.4
percent in 2022.
The CBUAE examined the
vulnerabilities through appropriate
measures and conducted several risk
assessments, scenario-based stress
tests, and macro-financial analyses
encompassing the whole UAE financial
system.
The extensive actions taken by
the CBUAE as part of the Targeted
Economic Support Scheme (TESS)
significantly contributed to the
financial system’s protection and
revival. TESS’s deployment was
successful in achieving its goals of
easing cash flow concerns for impacted
business and retail borrowers,
preserving acceptable liquidity
circumstances, and reducing pandemicrelated
operational difficulties. Strong
foundations and ample economic
financing capacity were maintained by
the UAE financial system.
The TESS deferral program
supported 322,000 borrowers with
The CBUAE created its
new strategic plan for
2023–2026 in 2021 based
on five key areas of focus:
adherence to pertinent
international standards,
sustainability, innovation
and technology,
collaboration,
partnership, and
transparency, and
construction of a
high–performance
central bank.
12 www.thefinanceworld.com August 2022

“In 2022, further FinTech initiatives will accelerate financial
inclusion, and develop our round-the-clock banking
operations, Open Finance, and cloud-based infrastructure.
Supported by risk-based advanced analytics and
AI-driven supervisory technology, this will reinforce the
UAE’s role as a leading regional and global business hub.”
temporary constraints because of the
pandemic’s detrimental effects on
household and corporate cash flows,
playing a critical role in UAE society.
Banks played a huge role in
stabilizing the country’s economy and
liquidity conditions in the market. The
UAE’s GDP increased by Dh1.91 billion
($520 million) over the previous twelve
months thanks in large part to the
Emirates Development Bank (EDB).
The Advances to Stable Resources
Ratio increased from 77.5 percent at
the end of March 2021 to 77.7 percent
in June 2021, demonstrating the
banking sector’s structural liquidity. As
the UAE economy continues to recover
and thrive from the pandemic slow
down and reap the rewards of hosting
the Expo 2020 Dubai, it is anticipated
that the financial assets of the country
will increase by 8 percent to 10 percent
in 2022.
The better investor mood and
economic recovery were the key
drivers of the stock markets’ upward
trend globally in the second quarter
of financial development. The share
price index of the Abu Dhabi Securities
Exchange increased by 15.6% quarterly
and by 59.9% on an annual basis,
while the index of the Dubai Financial
Market gained by 2.3% every quarter
and by 44.0% on an annual basis.
The CBUAE created its new strategic
plan for 2023–2026 in 2021 based on
five key areas of focus: adherence
to pertinent international standards,
sustainability, innovation and
technology, collaboration, partnership,
and transparency, and construction of
a high–performance central bank. With
the new approach, the CBUAE hopes
to enhance the competitiveness of the
UAE and rank among the top central
banks in the world for maintaining
monetary and financial stability. The
new strategic plan’s main goals are
to increase monetary and financial
stability, boost public confidence in
the financial system, and reinforce the
insurance industry’s role in providing
essential security for society and the
economy.
To enhance the finance system,
CBUAE has taken steps to undertake
the “digital transformation”. Digital
transformation will facilitate
innovation and will improve the
competitiveness of the country.
CBUAE has planned to implement
these measures in the upcoming year
2022-2023.
To address the issues with traditional
cross-border payments, CBUAE has
partnered with several banks, including
the Bank of Thailand, the Hong Kong
Monetary Authority, the Bank of
International Settlements Innovation
Hub in Hong Kong, and the People’s
Bank of China’s Digital Currency
Institute. This project is known as
the Multiple CBDC (mCBDC) Bridge.
There are 22 participants from the
private sector in the initiative. In 2021,
three reports on the technological
architecture, the operational model,
and 15 potential business use cases
were released.
To provide a safe and effective
environment for data sharing,
financial and product innovation,
and collaboration among financial
institutions and authorized third party
providers, CBUAE has also established
an Open Finance strategy.
Saif Humaid Hamad Al Dhaheri, the
Assistant Governor of the Strategy,
financial infrastructure, and digital
transformation stated, “In 2022, further
FinTech initiatives will accelerate
financial inclusion, and develop our
round-the-clock banking operations,
Open Finance, and cloud-based
infrastructure. Supported by risk-based
advanced analytics and AI-driven
supervisory technology, this will
reinforce the UAE’s role as a leading
regional and global business hub.”
To improvise the financial sector
and adopt the latest and advanced
technologies the CBUAE will work
with the financial industry to create a
financial services cloud infrastructure.
To encourage growth and innovation
in the financial sector, this effort
intends to make it easier to design
and manage a robust and secure cloud
infrastructure while guaranteeing
compliance with industry best
practices and relevant data protection
standards. In the event of success,
the UAE would become the premier
provider of MENA financial cloud
services.
CBUAE also plans to develop and
create a national e-KYC platform that
can improve customer onboarding
and ongoing and enhance financial
inclusion. The e-KYC platform has
several advantages, including improved
regulatory compliance, improved
client privacy, and data security, and
reduced operational expenses through
automation.
August 2022 www.thefinanceworld.com 13

UAE Banking
UAE Banks Federation
reviews banking
sector challenges
The newly established council is to provide
a broader platform for CEOs of member
banks to share their opinions and widen
decision-making bases. Members of the
CEOs Advisory Council of UAE Banks Federation
(UBF) held its third quarterly meeting of the year
online, which was presided over by Abdulaziz Al
Ghurair, chairman of UAE Banks Federation. The
meeting discussed the changing dynamics in the
UAE banking sector and the challenges faced, with
a focus on joint efforts with the Central Bank of
the UAE, as well as the nationwide campaign of
fraud awareness that it launched together with the
Central Bank and Abu Dhabi and Dubai Police.
Abu Dhabi Investment Authority
to invest in TMF Group
Abu Dhabi Investment Authority
has agreed to invest in TMF
Group, the corporate-trust
services provider owned by
CVC Capital Partners that had been
exploring an Initial Public Offering. A
total of €1.75 billion ($1.78 billion) was
paid by CVC to acquire the company
in 2017. According to the people, TMF
expects double-digit revenue growth
this year. As a result, IPO candidates
are increasingly exploring other
options for raising funds. CVC in 2021
attempted to take over Dutch tax
administration specialist Intertrust NV
and merge it with TMF in a deal that
would have created a global giant in
tax administration and corporate trust
services.
Emirates NBD
launches
national digital
talent program
Emirates NBD has partnered with
the Minister of State for artificial
intelligence, digital economy,
and remote work applications
office to launch the ‘National Digital
Talent Program’, as part of its efforts to
support the UAE government’s National
Strategy for Artificial Intelligence 2031.
In line with the program, to provide the
necessary resources to equip young
UAE nationals with critical skills and
practical knowledge needed to flourish
in the field of digital and information
technologies including artificial
intelligence. Emirates NBD has signed
a memorandum of understanding
(MoU) with partners including Higher
Colleges of Technology (HCT) and
University of Sharjah (UoS).
14 www.thefinanceworld.com August 2022

NBB signs
extended
partnership with
Mastercard
Citi UAE introduces recycled
plastic for corporate cards
The National Bank of Bahrain
(NBB) and global payments and
technology company Mastercard
have teamed up to elevate their
existing offerings and provide NBB’s
customers with a differentiated, digitalfirst
experience with value-added
benefits. The seven-year partnership
signing took place during Mastercard’s
Mena Executive Council’s inaugural
event that was held in Paris, France.
Furthermore, the partnership includes
a credit offering and the launch of the
bank’s highest tier of cards, targeted
at ultra-high-net-worth individuals
(UHNWI), offering priceless lifestyle
and travel benefits and experiences.
Mashreq
Bank signs
e-sports
partnership
with Galaxy
Racer
Mashreq Bank has partnered
with Dubai-based Galaxy
Racer (GXR), a transmedia
powerhouse, to launch a
content series and gaming tournaments
and support 10 of the region’s top
content creators. Commenting on the
partnership, the Founder and CEO
of Galaxy Racer, Paul Roy, said: “By
combining our shared values and
beliefs to nurture the next generation
of gaming talent and content creators,
we believe we can create some fun and
engaging content and activations for
our always-growing community.”
Every rPVC card will be made with
85% recycled industrial waste
per finished card and represents
a reduction in CO2 emissions
during the card manufacturing process,
delivering a reduction of 36% CO2
emissions in comparison to a standard
PVC card. Citi is committed to its
Zand gets
banking
license from
CBUAE
Zand, the first digital bank
to provide both retail and
corporate services, announced
that it had been granted a
banking license from the Central Bank
of the UAE to become Zand Bank, a
fully licensed bank. By successfully
securing a UAE banking license,
Zand is now authorized and regulated
to operate as a fully independent
commercial bank. Zand’s chairman,
Mohamed Alabbar said, “We’re
thrilled that Zand has reached another
milestone and is now a fully licensed
bank. With a UAE banking license,
we look forward to commencing
our innovative banking services and
contributing to the UAE’s legacy
of innovation as well as economic
growth.”
goal of achieving net zero emissions
associated with its financing by 2050,
and net zero emissions for operations
by 2030. With these goals in mind, the
focus is on the environmental impact
of its processes and how it can provide
sustainable products and solutions.
ADCB joins the
‘Buna’ system
to enhance
regional
cross-border
payments
Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank
(ADCB) announced that it has
joined the Arab Monetary Fund’s
(AMF) Buna system. ADCB
delivered a strong performance in the
first quarter of 2022, reporting a net profit
increase of 32 percent year-on-year (YoY)
to Dhs1.483bn, which is equivalent to
a return on average tangible equity of
12.6 percent. The platform also offers
more stringent levels of governance
and transparency through increased
oversight from central banks as well
as effective reporting and compliance
mechanisms.
August 2022 www.thefinanceworld.com 15

UAE Banking
UAE banks’ contributions to GDP growth
The World Expo activities and
the Fifa World Cup which is
scheduled to take place in
Qatar in the fourth quarter are
used by CBUAE to emphasize
GDP growths. The UAE
banking sector is the largest in the
Arab world with 1.3 times assets to that
of its GDP.
With 23 domestic banks and 28
foreign banks, the central bank of
the UAE serves as the main financial
regulatory body. Five of the largest
banks in the nation own 60% of
the sector’s assets. The four main
categories of banks are commercial,
industrial, merchant, and Islamic.
Top banks in the UAE are First Abu
Dhabi Bank with total assets worth
AED 940.75 Billion, Emirates NBD
worth assets AED 695.06, Abu Dhabi
Commercial Bank with total of AED
395.82 Billion assets, First Gulf Bank
with total assets amounted to US$ 66
Billion, Dubai Islamic Bank with total
assets worth AED 291.71 Billion and
Mashreq Bank with AED 162.25 Billion
worth assets.
With a total value of 2.61 trillion
dirhams, the banking sector assets of
the UAE exceeded those of all other
Gulf Cooperation nations. The banking
industry in the UAE is well known
for providing top-notch customer
service is currently becoming more
globally diversified. Recent analyses
of the banking industry in the UAE
that looked at its resources, personnel,
interest rates, and remuneration show
that it has been steadily expanding.
The UAE’s economy
increased by 8.2 percent
in the first quarter of
the year 2022. With the
OPEC+ agreement, there
has been an increase
in oil production, with
hydrocarbon GDP rising
by 13% annually. A strong
rise was observed in
the non-oil sector with
6 percent growth as the
country was benefited
by the ease in travel
restrictions.
16 www.thefinanceworld.com August 2022

The present objectives of the banking
sector are to continue expansion, draw
in more internationally renowned
banks while enhancing the standing
of domestic institutions, ensure the
stability of the financial system, and
establish strong risk departments. The
UAE’s stable banking sector growth
contributes to the country’s reputation
both domestically and abroad.
Banks are quickly automating
operations to provide seamless
customer service in a virtual
environment by utilizing digital
transformation strategies like
blockchain, artificial intelligence, and
machine learning. Banks are expected
by stakeholders to contribute to efforts
aimed at a more just and sustainable
future. As a result, environmental,
social, and governance policy
evaluation is receiving more attention
from international regulators.
In addition to reporting the bank’s
first-ever net profit of AED 5.1 billion,
FAB also achieved a net gain of AED
2.8 billion from the sale of the majority
stake in payments company Magnati.
Operational income and earnings per
share for the quarter totaled 4.5 billion
AED and 1.84 AED, respectively, in
addition to the net profit.
Speaking of future plans and
initiatives, FAB wants to increase its
presence in certain new markets. As
the UAE continues to be one of Iraq’s
most significant economic partners,
the Shanghai branch, which opened a
representative office in March, served
as a strategic addition to the country’s
geographic reach.
Emirates NBD in Dubai reported a
net profit of Dh2.7 billion for the first
quarter of 2022, up 18% year over year
and 36% sequentially.
The increase was due to Q1 2022
setting records for client transactions,
deposit growth, and retail lending.
Due to a better loan mix and lower
deposit rates, total income increased
by 3% on an annual basis to Dhs6.4
billion. Additionally, the bank has a 25%
market share for debit and credit card
transactions in the UAE. The GCC’s
2022 GDP growth predictions were
updated by Emirates NBD Research to
reflect anticipated increases in oil and
gas output.
Emirates Development Bank plans
on contributing $520m to the UAE’s
GDP. Dr.Sultan Al Jaber, Minister of
Industry and Advanced Technology
and EDB board chairman underlines
the bank’s new strategy and economic
contribution, “not just to the UAE’s
industrial sector, but also to the
nation’s economic diversification,
global competitiveness and long-term,
sustainable economic growth”. The
bank’s new strategy was introduced
to aid in the industrial advancement
of the United Arab Emirates, speed up
the use of cutting-edge technology, and
fosters the expansion of SMEs there.
It focuses on how big businesses and
SMEs are growing and developing in
five important industries, including
manufacturing, cutting-edge
technology, infrastructure, health care,
and food security.
August 2022 www.thefinanceworld.com 17

Cover Story
Sharif El-Badawi
CEO of Dubai Future District Fund
The idea that two of us
in a garage are going to
sew up a little app and
disrupt this giant banking
industry is just not
realistic. It happens when
you combine traditional
incumbent industries with
innovative technologies
and teams.
18 www.thefinanceworld.com August 2022

Sharif El-Badawi, CEO of Dubai Future
District Fund
Sharif El-Badawi, CEO of Dubai Future District Fund, a fund anchored by
Dubai Future Foundation and the DIFC to invest in the future of finance
and future economies in Dubai, the UAE, and the broader region. He was
a Managing Partner of Plus Venture Capital (+VC), one of the leading seed stage
investment firms in the MENA, and co-founded and managed the first US-based
venture capital firm with a dedicated fund for the MENA region, 500 Falcons,
which has invested in over 180 start-ups across 15 countries.
Exclusive to The Finance World Magazine
Please tell us a bit about what the
Dubai Future District Fund is and
what is the main goal of this fund?
The Dubai Future District Fund is
a venture capital fund of funds and
direct investment vehicle that was
set up by the DIFC and Dubai Future
Foundation as the venture platform for
Dubai. Its main goal is to invest in more
VCs around the region and directly
into the high-growth start-ups that
are paving the path toward innovative
and technologies across the future of
finance and future economies.
How do you describe your journey
as a VC and investor supporting
new projects?
My journey is very common, starting
as an entrepreneur as part of different
types of start-ups. Post the web 1.0
movement, I got lucky and joined a
start-up, well-funded by big names
and the company ended up getting
acquired by Google. I learned how to
be a technology executive at a largescale
company, with a different sort of
DNA, and a different set of skills. After
leaving Google I launched the first
U.S. fund to have a dedicated fund for
the MENA region. We invested in 180
companies from 2017 to 2020. I’d say
it’s a typical flow from an entrepreneur
to a big tech executive to an investor.
What’s important for the upcoming
projects and ideas to be futureready?
The way we think about the story
of helping build the ecosystem from a
capital infusion perspective is by trying
to identify the different gaps, which
come in different layers. The very first
layer is the capital that is invested in
the VC funds that invest in start-ups,
what we call limited partners or LPs,
where we don’t have sufficient pools
of capital. So that’s one area we’re
focused on and that’s why the fund was
set up.
The second is to diversify the
pools of capital, institutional capital,
and private capital that is available
for founders. The founders need
optionality and plurality in the types of
capital they can raise, whether they’re
in a certain stage, sector or geography
across the region or other emerging
markets. Now you might see that
the top line looks like there are 200+
investors, but really to each founder,
it is a very limited set of potential
investors that will meet the criteria of
investing in their company. We’re trying
to add more options and diversify
the pools of capital that founders can
use. VC funds cannot raise funds and
invest in founders unless there’s capital
for them, and the founders cannot
raise unless there are enough options
for them. The other part is how we
involve the private sector, such as
conglomerates to put more of their
capital into the venture capital asset
class. That’s a longer-term project that
we’re working on and then we’ll be
working on how we can give access to
qualified retail investors, such as you
and I, or any individual who wants to
invest in the venture index of Dubai.
We’ll be launching a new platform
that enables that part and this will be
announced next year. Therefore, we’re
creating a fund of funds and direct
investment platform, which is going to
be an index covering the region serving
the various investment needs of our
community.
What’s important within a project
to be eligible for the fund?
We look at the same basic criteria
like team, traction, technology and
market potential. We look at whether
the product or the solution is a good
August 2022 www.thefinanceworld.com 19

Cover Story
solution for what they state is a
problem in the market. The relevancy
of the problem and solution should
be innovative and compatible so that
the customers can keep buying that
product. These are things that every
investor must look and the degree to
which we do that is based on the stage
of investment.
We’ll do our direct tickets from preseed
up to Series C. In each of these
stages, that criterion has a different
flavor. When I look at a pre-seed
company, it’s about the team or the
idea of the company. Later, we look at
their traction, momentum and growth
in terms of revenue generation, the
right economics, margins, and the
ability of the company to adapt to a
new market, and so on. These differ on
the basis of the type of the company.
The basis on these metrics and how
capital-efficient the company is, we
have benchmarks for each stage of the
company’s development. How much
money has already been spent and how
much more is required, post analyzing
that we assess the exit opportunities.
Where do you think the current
core strength for innovation lies,
focusing more on Dubai?
Considering Dubai, we’re lucky
to play on the current strengths that
it has already established. A few of
these strengths are the liveability and
workability of the city. Several sister
organizations around the fund are
continuously asking for feedback from
the audience and then trying to address
those concerns, like the cost of living,
and ease of doing business. A lot of
things like Visa types opening, demand
for housing, people and capital flows
in Dubai, the supply is continuously
increasing to allow people to rent and
buy property, own their property, or
open their businesses, 100% onshore. A
number of these things are constantly
pushing forward making our job, a lot
easier than other hubs because other
hubs are trying to create an ecosystem
through incentives and pull people
there. Dubai already has the pull, it
makes our job of deploying capital a lot
easier because people want to be here.
Even now there is still a traditional
approach in the minds of parents
that their kids shouldn’t be
entrepreneurs, but rather take up
safer jobs. What is your advice to
them?
I was born and brought up in the U.S,
and I don’t think it’s a regional-specific
issue. This happens everywhere and
all parents are concerned about their
kids. They want their child to study
and have stable 9 to 5 jobs, but the
kids after our generation didn’t feel the
need to bunker down like that. They
were like, “Let me take my chances,
let me find out my destiny.” I had
already started my start-up journey
from the time when I was in college,
being an entrepreneur even then.
After the company that I was working
SCAN TO VIEW THE INTERVIEW
at got bought by Google, my parents
misinterpreted the same satisfaction
that I finally got a job.
Parents back then did not want
children to go into entrepreneurship,
but once they started using these apps
themselves, they started gauging the
importance of it. Parents right now are
becoming more accepting across the
region, nobody did it 5-6 years ago.
Once Careem and Souq got acquired,
all the parents understood that this
is real. Even the young employees
that did not respect the ESOP got
convinced after the exits. We need to
go through a few more such cycles
and then people will start to value the
equity and ask for a lower salary. We
have capital availability in the region,
we’ve seen exits and we also have
international investors coming. Many
of these factors must be in place by the
government. Now that we have it, we
will see the increase in frequency and
size of the exits.
What personal traits or value
systems help make an entrepreneur
successful?
At the core of a personality trait,
I think it is resilience and grit, the
ability to have a vision and be able to
story tell your vision to yourself first
because you must convince yourself
every single day for years. Further, then
translate that story to people who you
want to hire and come with you along
your journey. You must convince the
best people to come with you, convince
your investors and lastly convince
your customers. You’re constantly
storytelling. So, if you can’t tell a story,
it’s very hard to be an entrepreneur.
Lastly, what message do you have
for our readers?
I believe that the finance world is the
hottest sector in venture these days
and everyone wants to be a part of it.
One thing we see is that there is a lot of
investment ability in a fintech company
because a lot of investors understand
finance and like how it grows, so if
you work in finance or fintech, you
have a much better chance of raising
capital. The talent pool from which
you can hire is vast and you just need
to understand banking, and credit to
hire the correct people and hire them
accordingly. But I believe the most
important caution will be that not
everything that glitters is gold, and you
cannot become valuable out of thin air.
For a fintech, the idea that two of us in
a garage are going to sew up a little app
and disrupt this giant banking industry
is just not realistic. It happens when
you combine traditional incumbent
industries with innovative technologies
and teams. Those industries are
vast and complicated, and you must
collaborate, that is what people are
finally realizing in fintech. I think that’s
a realization nowadays that I would
say for the finance industry to be
aware of.
20 www.thefinanceworld.com August 2022

Fintech
UAE’s growth as a Fintech hub
Ambitious Fintechs naturally gravitate towards hubs where they can receive help from network
effects in areas such as investment, talent, and idea generation. As a result of this, cities
such as San Francisco, London and Shenzhen have fast become hotbeds for scaling Fintech
businesses that have gone on to become global household names.
The UAE is also one of the leading
Fintech hubs globally, and the
UAE government and business
community are making concerted
and coordinated efforts to further
strengthen the country’s position
as an international hub for new and
established Fintechs alike.
Over the rest of this year and
beyond, the UAE aims to cultivate
further growth through a combination
of substantial market opportunity,
supportive government policies, and a
growing Fintech ecosystem.
The Q1 2022 the Middle East and
North Africa (MENA) Venture Report
is one of MAGNiTT’s flagship reports
that provide a quarterly update on the
venture capital and startup ecosystems
in the MENA region.
In addition to that cross-border
collaboration initiative, another
key factor contributing to this rapid
acceleration in Fintech innovation has
been at the government level, with
millions being pumped into the startup
ecosystem in recent years through
sovereign wealth funds (SWF) like
the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority
(ADIA), one of the world’s largest
SWFs with nearly $700 billion in assets.
While VC funding recorded a 13%
drop in the global venture markets
and a 31% dip in the Asian markets
since Q4’21, the MENA ecosystem saw
impressive QoQ growth in both capital
investment and total transactions
closed. Funding in the MENA startup
space over the first quarter of the year
has surpassed that of the previous
quarter Q4 ‘21 by 33.3%, and that
of Q1’21 by 161%. All MENA top
geographies have explored a Quarteron-Quarter
growth in funding at the
beginning of this year.
With burgeoning international
investor participation reaching
proportions of 61% in markets like the
UAE, later-stage investment continues
to take off across MENA with the mean
Series B round size recording a 108%
YoY growth to average north of $50M in
Q1 2021, driven by MENA’s 1 Mega Deal
recorded at the beginning of the year.
Highlights - MENA Q1 2022 Venture
Investment Report
● $864M was raised in venture
funding in MENA over the first quarter
of the year; signifying a strong start for
the ecosystem
● 1 Mega Deal ($100M+) was recorded
in MENA closed by Crypto currency
platform Rain, while the region’s top 5
funding rounds accounted for 35% of
total funding in Q1’22
● Startups in the UAE accounted
for 27.3% of all deals closed across
MENA and 34.4% of all funding raised
across the region in 2022 YTD
● While Fintech startups closed every
fourth deal across MENA in Q1’21,
August 2022 www.thefinanceworld.com 21

Fintech
Fintech and T&L together constituted
more than half (53%) of all funds raised
across MENA in the first quarter of the
year.
● The 16 exits recorded in the first
quarter of the year already make for
44% of those recorded over FY 2021
and equate to those of FY 2020.
Commercial opportunities
The Middle East and North Africa
(MENA) region is an attractive
destination for Fintechs due to the
volume of commercial opportunities
on offer. Unlike mature markets, such
as the US and Europe, a substantial
proportion of the region’s population
is either under-banked or unbanked.
Within the Middle East alone, 136
million adults fall into these categories.
For globally minded Fintechs
this provides access to significant
commercial opportunities that can
play a key role in expanding their
customer base, while simultaneously
supporting financial inclusion. This
is reflected in the growth of specific
Fintech verticals across the region.
Even before the pandemic accelerated
their adoption, digital payments in the
UAE were already rising at an annual
rate of more than 9% between 2014 and
2019, compared with Europe’s average
annual growth of 4% to 5%.
Furthermore, the demographic
profile of the MENA region also
provides substantial opportunities.
Some 60% of Kuwait’s population,
for example, is below the age of 30,
and the median age in Egypt (with a
population of 102 million) is just 24.
At the same time, much of MENA’s
population is extremely tech savvy
and desires products that offer speed,
reliability, and convenience.
Future access to funding
This is a result of a concerted
effort on the part of our government.
Free zones have been at the heart of
this, with innovative initiatives from
Abu Dhabi Global Market and the
Dubai International Financial Centre
providing a range of benefits, including
zero tax on business income and
profits.
The Dubai government also
announced the Dh1bn ($270m) Dubai
Future District Fund to support seedto-growth-stage
tech start-ups, which
was launched by Sheikh Maktoum bin
Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum,
minister of finance of the UAE and
deputy ruler of Dubai.
Similarly, the Abu Dhabi government
has put in place several initiatives
to create a favorable business
environment for entrepreneurial talent
and innovative businesses, such as Abu
Dhabi Catalyst Partner’s $1bn fund, and
Abu Dhabi Investment Office’s $545m
Innovation Programme, and Hub71’s
global tech ecosystem. The latter has
helped start-ups raise more than $420m
to date.
As the UAE’s digital economy
continues to mature, and region-wide
innovation and favorable regulations
continue to attract top start-up talent,
these businesses are replicating
successful global models in the MENA
region to form a global hub of Fintech
innovation, simultaneously helping the
industry, the region and the people who
live here.
This year, the UAE is expected
to undergo a significant year in its
adoption of digital payments, which are
set to account for 73% of transaction
volume by 2023. With a large
While Fintech
startups closed
every fourth deal
across MENA in
Q1’21, Fintech
and T & L together
constituted more
than half (53%)
of all funds raised
across MENA in the
first quarter of
the year
population of spenders on the cusp
of transitioning to digital payments,
coupled with a government prioritizing
entrepreneurship and critical access
to funding, the region is cementing its
place on the global stage as a major
Fintech player.
Competitive Landscape
Companies across the world have
huge investments in this segment of the
market. In UAE, the FinTech market
has many companies fragmented over
minor shares. Tabby, Yallacompare,
Sehteq, Beehive FinTech, Souqalmal,
Sarwa, Mamo Pay, and Now Money are
among the FinTech Companies.
Adoption of FinTech platform and
up-gradation to modern technology
leads to increased competition
amongst the company. Innovation and
technological advancement taking pace
as COVID-19 and urbanization strike
general people to the adoption of the
new ease in payment and contactless
payment gateways.
A leader in the Middle East
Across the Arab World, the UAE
has the most developed and dynamic
fintech ecosystem, the report says,
and is recognized for its support to
young startups, a private sector eager
to partner up with innovative fintechs,
and broad access to funding for
innovative ventures.
At the federal level, key initiatives
have been launched by the government
to position the UAE as a major fintech
and tech hub not just regionally but
also globally. These include the UAE
Fintech Office, the National Innovation
Strategy, and the National Artificial
Intelligence Strategy 2031.
Locally, the Emirates of Abu Dhabi
and Dubai and their respective free
zones the Abu Dhabi Global Market
(ADGM) and the Dubai International
Financial Centre (DIFC) have been
amongst the most initiative-taking
jurisdictions in the Middle East when it
comes to fintech.
Some of their key initiatives include
the DIFC Fintech Hive, the largest
fintech accelerator program in the
Middle East and North Africa, the DIFC
Fintech Fund, a US$100 million fund
for fintech startups, and the ADGM
Digital Lab, a virtual environment that
gives industry participants access to
resources including data, APIs, system
images and reference architecture.
22 www.thefinanceworld.com August 2022

MENA’s
demand for
payment hubs
rises
The payments landscape in the
Middle East is heading toward
an inflection point. Despite the
region’s digitally savvy population with
smartphone penetration reaching 80
to 90 percent in leading markets, the
region has remained heavily dependent
on cash payments practitioners expect
the shift to digital to be permanent. In
the survey, 90 percent predicted that
at least half of new users will stick
with digital payments rather than
revert to cash later. In addition, more
than half of survey respondents said
strong growth in noncash payments
will continue over the next five years,
resulting in a cumulative increase in
digital transactions of more than 50
percent above 2020 levels across the
region.
Arab Financial
Services
expand digital
payments
solutions in
Egypt
Fintech News
Etisalat by e& launch ‘GoChat
Messenger’ for free calling
Etisalat UAE, a telecoms
company branded as Etisalat
by e&, announced the launch
of GoChat Messenger, an all-in-one
free voice and video calling app,
giving customers the flexibility of
accessing unique features within
one application. GoChat Messenger
allows customers to easily make and
receive voice and video calls, chat
with friends and family, transfer
money to their families, pay bills,
play games, stay updated with the
latest news and events, access Smiles
vouchers, and deals, as well as
several home services.
Dubai Freezone positions as
leading regional fintech hub
Essa Kazim, governor of DIFC,
told Euronews at the event
that fintech is now the fastest
growing sector for DIFC, contributing
more than 35% to the total number of
companies that have been established
over the last 12 months. Part of that
success can be attributed to the hub’s
role in supporting fintech companies
from incubation and acceleration
to investment stages, Kazim said, a
strategy which was materialized in
April 2022 by the announcement of
so-called venture studios across the
freezone.
Arab Financial Services (AFS)
a leading digital payment
solutions provider and fintech
enabler in the Middle East and Africa
has announced plans to expand its
payments footprint in Egypt with the
establishment of a branch. Based
in Cairo, Tawfik Mahmoud will be
responsible for leading the company’s
strategy in Egypt, growing the team
across the country, supporting its
growth, and scaling Egypt’s merchant
clients across all sectors and
industries.
August 2022 www.thefinanceworld.com 23

Business
Talal Al Dhiyebi
Group CEO of Aldar Properties
24 www.thefinanceworld.com August 2022

Business Leaders in Focus
Talal Al Dhiyebi is the group chief executive officer at Aldar Properties. He has
previously held prominent positions within the company, including those of chief
development officer and executive director of asset management.
His board memberships
include those of Miral
Asset Management,
Abu Dhabi Motorsports
Management, Sandooq
Al Watan, the Abu Dhabi Housing
Authority, and the Abu Dhabi
Chamber of Commerce and
Industry. He also serves as
chairman of Aldar Investment,
vice-chairman of Aldar Education,
and chairman of Musanada and
Aldar Estates.
Talal is a graduate of Electrical
Engineering (Honors) from the
University of Melbourne, Australia.
Aldar Properties
Aldar Properties PJSC is a real
estate development, management,
and investment company with
headquarters in Abu Dhabi, United
Arab Emirates. The company’s
shares are traded on the Abu Dhabi
Securities Exchange.
Founded in 2004, Aldar
Properties is one of the major
players shaping the urban and
residential fabric of Abu Dhabi.
The company develops and manages
large-scale projects that include Al
Raha Beach, Al Raha Gardens, and Yas
Island, which contains the Yas Marina
Circuit, Yas Hotel Abu Dhabi, and the
theme parks Ferrari World and Yas
Waterworld.
Aldar has also created homes for
families since its inception, including
villas, townhouses, high-rise, and midrise
apartments.
“Abu Dhabi has attracted talent from
across the globe to work, live and visit
this great metropolitan city,” says Talal
Al Dhiyebi.
“One of the unique aspects of the
city’s development lies in its robust
infrastructure. Typically, it takes time
for infrastructure to keep pace with
development, but we have invested
Al Dhiyebi stated his
thoughts about the
company’s growth saying,
“with the economic rebound
gathering momentum
throughout 2021, Aldar
delivered an excellent
set of financial results, a
strengthened development
pipeline, and a first
international market entry”.
heavily in it — be it roads, utilities,
new airports, or port facilities. As a
result, everything is well serviced and
connected.”
Aldar’s approach focuses on creating
the “urban ecosystems” which ensure
liveable and vibrant communities.
This attracts people to stay in the city,
purchase their own homes, and settle
down to further contribute to Abu
Dhabi as it grows.
These residential developments
are designed to be future-proof and
combine high-quality, well-designed
housing complemented and enhanced
by retail, international-standard
education, cultural, recreational, and
entertainment venues, and community
amenities such as parks, sports
facilities, and access to nature.
For example, Saadiyat Island, one
of Aldar’s largest recent projects,
combines residential living with
cultural attractions like the
Louvre Abu Dhabi, world-class
educational institutions such as
Cranleigh Abu Dhabi and New
York University - Abu Dhabi, and
a three-kilometer beach, all within
walking distance, and connected
by walking and bike paths.
Aldar introduced their new
project “Lea” located on the
north side of Yas Island having
a collection of Residential
Land. Lea at Yas Island offers
waterfront living alongside parks,
promenades, and waterside
walkways in addition to access
to all of Yas Acres amenities. The
property portfolio further includes
the company’s headquarters, Gate
and Arc Towers in Al Reem Island,
Coconut Island, the Abu Dhabi
Central Market (Souq), Al Jimi
Shopping Centre, Noor Al Ain, Al
Gurm Resort, and Al Mamoura
– the Mubadala Development
Company and Environment Agency
Abu Dhabi Headquarters Building.
Aldar is continuing to deliver strong
financial performance and shareholder
returns, driven by its diversified asset
base. It has entered new geographies
and asset classes, as well as robust
organic growth in its core market in the
past months. The company recorded its
highest-ever annual development sales
in 2021, doubling from the previous
year’s sales, and has expanded its land
bank in the UAE.
Additionally, it entered the Egyptian
market and enhanced its UAE
diversification through its expansion to
Ras Al Khaimah.
The company also made its first entry
into the logistics real estate sector with
regional expansion plans in place.
Moreover, Aldar is attracting
investment from global leaders like
August 2022 www.thefinanceworld.com 25

Business
Apollo, which recently invested $1.4bn
of strategic growth capital through
monetization of Aldar’s long-term
land bank and equity investments
into its flagship investment properties
platform. Looking ahead, this funding
as well as existing cash and facilities
will be deployed to realize the
company’s growth ambitions.
Talal Al Dhiyebi’s role in Aldar
Before assuming the CEO position
in 2017, Al Dhiyebi held several
leadership roles within the company
since its merger with Sorouh in 2013.
Aldar Properties is a developer of
major projects in Abu Dhabi, including
Yas Island and Ferrari World. The
company manages government projects
worth around $8.2 billion as part of an
MoU signed with ADQ, making it the
biggest listed developer in the U.A.E.
Following the deal, the firm recorded a
30% surge in revenue at $571.7 million
in Q3 2020. Al Dhiyebi also serves on
the boards of several other companies,
including Miral Asset Management and
Sandooq Al Watan.
Under Al Dhiyebi’s leadership, Aldar
Properties reported strong financial
results driven by the competitive
performance of the Aldar Development
business as well as Aldar Investment’s
recurring income portfolio.
Al Dhiyebi stated his thoughts about
the company’s growth saying, “with
the economic rebound gathering
momentum throughout 2021, Aldar
delivered an excellent set of financial
results, a strengthened development
pipeline, and a first international
market entry”.
At the beginning of Q2 2022, Aldar
announced the expansion of its land
bank, acquiring 6.2 million square
meters of land located on the east side
of Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi. The
land, valued at $1bn will be paid as the
proposed development on the island
progresses. The construction for the
island is scheduled to begin during the
second half of the year over a 4-year
development period.
Additionally, Aldar Properties
has also seen successful residential
launches in 2022 with the second
phase of the Alreeman II development;
the ‘Fay Alreeman’ underway. The
$544.9mn master-planned community
in Abu Dhabi was developed as a
response to cater to Aldar Properties’
customer preferences with spacious
floorplans, closed kitchens, and majlis
spaces among other specific features.
Fay Alreeman’s master plan has been
designed in clusters, each with its
parks and amenities, to build a strong
sense of community.
With sustainability as an integral part
of their business strategy, Al Dhiyebi’s
leadership will align the company’s
approach and policies, creating a
business strategy that imposes a
positive impact on the economy,
environment, and people.
Aldar Properties Capitalisation
Aldar reported group development
revenues for the same time of AED2.2
billion ($598.9m), a 27 percent rise in
Q1 net profit. First-quarter group sales
26 www.thefinanceworld.com August 2022

for the real estate developer were
$598.9 million, driven by the capital’s
real estate market’s ongoing strength.
The robust Q1 results of Egyptian
developer SODIC, which Aldar
purchased in December, and the
ongoing momentum in Abu Dhabi’s real
estate market were the driving forces
behind this.
Talal Al Dhiyebi commented on this
that during the first quarter, Aldar not
only had a good financial performance
but also diversified sources of funding
and built-up operational capabilities
in preparation for further growth
prospects.
He continued, “We attracted
a major investment from Apollo
Global Management, which is driving
the accelerated expansion and
diversification of our investment
property business. We also entered
the high potential market of Ras Al
Khaimah through two acquisitions in
retail and hospitality, further increasing
our geographic footprint, having
entered the Egypt market at the end of
last year”
The real estate developer also
disclosed a healthy liquidity position,
with AED4.9 billion ($1.3 billion) in
committed undrawn facilities and
AED5.6 billion ($1.5 billion) in
free cash.
As part of Apollo Global
Management’s AED5.14 billion ($1.4
billion) strategic investment into
Aldar’s growth initiatives, which
was announced in February, Aldar
Investment Properties also issued
AED1,836 million ($500 million) in
subordinated perpetual notes to Apollo
Global Management. This transaction
marked one of the largest-ever foreign
direct investments into Abu Dhabi’s
private sector.
“In the coming months, Aldar will
capitalize on a robust deal pipeline to
further broaden our asset base. With
demand for quality Abu Dhabi property
remaining strong among investors
and end-users, we will also ramp up
development activity and new project
launches, particularly on the expanded
strategic land bank on Saadiyat Island,”
explained Al Dhiyebi.
Aldar Investment has also ramped up
its transaction activity with an AED1
billion commitment to expand Aldar
Education’s portfolio and entry into the
Ras Al Khaimah market through the
AED 410m acquisition of
Al Hamra Mall.
It has also acquired AED770 million
Rixos Bab Al Bahr luxury resort in RAK
and launched a logistics real estate
vertical with the acquisition of Abu
Dhabi Business Hub.
Aldar demonstrated its focus
on ESG through a portfolio-wide
energy management project to
reduce energy consumption by 20
percent, an agreement to use EWEC’s
certified clean energy across 100
percent of Aldar’s assets which
will reduce scope-2 emissions, and
the announcement of its first fully
sustainable community, Sustainable
City – Yas Island.
August 2022 www.thefinanceworld.com 27

Business
Jasim Husain Thabet
Group CEO and MD of TAQA
Business Leaders in Focus
Jasim Husain Thabet, who pursued his Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering degree from St. Martin’s University,
Washington, United States, has been at the helm of TAQA. The Abu Dhabi National Energy Company, PJSC is an
energy holding company of the government of Abu Dhabi, UAE. TAQA is one of Abu Dhabi’s flagship companies,
established in the year 2005, that has a pivotal role in aiding the economic strategy of the Emirates and is a diverse
utility and energy group that has its headquarters located in Abu Dhabi. Initially, he had begun his career in offshore
operations at the globe’s leading oil-producing company, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC). TAQA is
currently the largest public company in the EMEA region with a market capitalization value of around $46 billion and
is one of the top 10 integrated utility companies.
28 www.thefinanceworld.com August 2022

Past conquests
Jasim has been the Group
Chief Executive Officer
and the Managing Director
of TAQA since July 2020.
He has been an energy
industry veteran for over two decades
and was elected to TAQA’s Board
of Directors in the year 2019. Prior
to his association with TAQA, he
served as a Chief Executive Officer
and Managing Director of Abu Dhabi
Power Corporation. In relation to this
industry, he helped in accelerating
the portfolio of assets of the company
throughout the value chain to aid
the transformation of the power and
water industry in the UAE just within
a period of 15 months. Jasim had also
worked with the National Central
Cooling Company as a Chief Executive
Officer wherein he had leveraged
the capacity expansion and revenue
growth. During his tenure of six years
at the organization, he successfully
developed an advanced model of
sustainable growth which saw over 50%
growth in consolidated capacity along
Since its inception in
2005, TAQA has invested
in water and power
generation along with
its transmission and
distribution. Outside
the realm of the UAE,
it is now located in
several countries such
as Canada, Ghana, India,
Iraq, Morocco, Oman,
Netherlands, Saudi Arabia,
the UK, and the USA, and
the assets of the company
are valued at almost AED
191 billion.
with a 28% hike in revenues in the UAE.
His past experiences also include his
association with Mamoura Diversified
Global Holding PJSC as its Vice
President and Senior Project Manager
at General Electric Power Systems.
Jasim and his role in TAQA
Since Jasim’s association with TAQA,
the company has been working in
hands with the Emirates Water and
Electricity Company (EWEC) and
has been successful in raising around
$700.8 million in January 2022 through
the first green senior secured bonds
which are in turn linked to the solar
plants. Just in one year’s time span,
TAQA has gained around $1.6 billion
in profits. There has been a rise in the
profit margins by 46% as compared to
the previous years. Apart from TAQA,
Jasim has also been serving on the
boards of the Abu Dhabi Chamber
of Commerce and Industry, Etihad
Aviation Group, and Abu Dhabi Ports
and all of them has witnessed a drastic
change in the rate of growth.
August 2022 www.thefinanceworld.com 29

Business
TAQA and its goals: present and
future
Since its inception in 2005, TAQA
has invested in water and power
generation along with its transmission
and distribution. Outside the realm
of the UAE, it is now located in
several countries such as Canada,
Ghana, India, Iraq, Morocco, Oman,
Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, the UK,
and the USA, and the assets of the
company are valued at almost AED 191
billion. With regards to its performance
in 2021, TAQA has quite seamlessly
surpassed all its contemporaries
and has boosted itself in an efficient
manner by recovering the commodity
prices. This shows that the revenue
earned by group has reached up to
AED 45.7 billion which is almost 11%
higher than the previous year. This
increase is recorded typically due to
the higher commodity prices in the oil
and gas sector.
To keep up with their ongoing profit
percentages, TAQA has devised a 2030
strategy which they unveiled in 2021,
that is aimed at more sustainable and
profitable growth of the Group. TAQA
has an aim to increase its gross power
capacity to 30 GW by 2030 from the
18 GW that it is now. This will also
include the retiring of 8 GW of older
power plant technology and offset by
the existing pipeline of more than 9
GW of new, clean capacity. Apart from
it, TAQA is also committed to jumping
the bandwagon to be recognized as the
low carbon power and water champion
in not only Abu Dhabi but also globally
as well. With their expertise, imminent
skillset, and financial power, they aim
to achieve the 2030 strategy to be in
coherence with the objectives of UAE
and its decarbonization aims.
New capacity would also be
emerging from the advanced clean
energy technology such as the efficient
gas-fired power plants and other
renewable resources that are focused
on reducing emissions by 30% through
modern photovoltaic technology. With
respect to water desalination as well,
50% of the existing plants will retire as
the alignment has shifted more towards
reverse osmosis (RO) technology.
This RO capability will increase by
two-thirds by 2030. The immediate
focus is to build a substantial UAEbased
infrastructure that would build
a network through projects and also
invest a whopping AED 40 billion to
grow the regulated asset base by 2030.
Improvisations in TAQA and its
impact
Jasim has helped in creating an
ecosystem that would act as a platform
Jasim has helped in
creating an ecosystem
that would act as a
platform for continual
value generation which
is in alignment with
their business models
and capital structure.
This had contributed to
widening the scope of
growth and its related
opportunities while
permitting the investors
to share in the cash
flows from regulated and
long-term assets.
TAQA’s vision and mission
At TAQA, their strategical goals are set keeping in mind their strong purpose:
“Powering a thriving future by efficiently providing sustainable and reliable
energy and water to unleash the unlimited potential of people and places.”
The clear vision of TAQA in the future is to:
“To provide the clean power and water that governments, businesses, and
consumers need for a sustainable and successful life.”
And their mission is also to:
“Be a low carbon power and water champion.”
for continual value generation which
is in alignment with their business
models and capital structure. This
had contributed to widening the
scope of growth and its related
opportunities while permitting the
investors to share in the cash flows
from regulated and long-term assets.
TAQA’s domestic growth strategy is
pretty much interlinked with the UAE’s
national strategy for energy and water
supply. Due to this factor, Jasim has
anticipated a hike in the growth graph
along with increased deployment of
new clean energy generation with
high-efficiency RO technology. This
will simply help in creating worth
in the market and reward TAQA’s
shareholders with an improved
dividend policy.
Since Jasim’s involvement with
TAQA has broadened the perspective
and has been selectively pursuing
international growth. Looking at it from
a narrower perspective, it would imply
driving efficiency towards customer
satisfaction, but the wider perspective
showcases that it is aimed at protecting
their financial strength and anchoring
TAQA’s practices in consonance with
Abu Dhabi’s principles. Jasim has
been successful in tactfully improving
the workforce’s capabilities while
aiming at achieving its personal
objective of becoming more safer,
more sustainable, collaborative, and
innovative group.
30 www.thefinanceworld.com August 2022

Business News
UAE Golden Visa discounts
revealed after 65,000 issued
The UAE Cabinet, headed
by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid
Al Maktoum, the Vice President,
Prime Minister, and Ruler of
Dubai, approved a new set of executive
regulations of the Federal Decree-Law
on Entry and Residence of Foreigners
to strengthen the UAE’s position as
an ideal destination to live, work, and
invest back in April 2022. In addition
to securing their stay in the UAE for
10 years, the new rules introduced in
April will allow the Golden Visa holder
to sponsor his/ her family members,
including spouse and children
regardless of their age, and to sponsor
support services (domestic) laborers
without limiting their number.
AD Ports Group and Hayat
Biotech sign MoU to boost
international business
Amemorandum of understanding
(MoU) between AD Ports
Group and UAE-based Hayat
Biotech would allow the latter
to establish manufacturing facilities
all over the world and offer logistical
services to serve its global customers.
The agreement covers the shipping
of strategic construction supplies,
including containers, machinery,
raw materials, and equipment, to
support the construction of Hayat
Biotech’s global biopharmaceutical
manufacturing facilities. Alongside the
Department of Health – Abu Dhabi,
Etihad Cargo, Maqta Gateway, Rafed,
and SkyCell, AD Ports Group is one of
the founding members of the HOPE
Consortium, which is helping lead the
distribution of Covid-19 vaccines to all
parts of the globe. The partnership has
handled over 250 million vaccine doses
across 60 countries.
UAE government
workers get 1
year paid leave
to start business
The cabinet meeting in Abu Dhabi
included the approval of an AED
2.4 billion housing loan provision
for 500 Emiratis over the next
six months. The plan aims to complete
13,000 houses through the Sheikh
Zayed Housing Programme over the
next few years. In May, the Cabinet
decreed that companies with more
than 50 employees should have a 2
percent Emirati workforce by next
year, moving up to 10 percent by
2026. The IMF projects that the UAE
economy will grow 4.2 percent this
year while Japan’s largest lender MUFG
expects it to grow 4.9 percent.
Dubai Chamber
of Commerce
records members
increase
According to the Dubai Chamber
of Commerce, the value of
member exports and re-exports
in the first half of 2022 totaled
Dhs129.4 billion, a 17.8 percent
increase over the same period last year.
In H1-2022, the number of certificates
of origin issued increased 8.9 percent
year on year to exceed 357,000. Hamad
Buamim, President, and CEO of
Dubai Chambers described said Dubai
International Chamber’s representative
offices played a crucial role in
supporting the growth of member
exports as these offices identify
high-potential trade opportunities
in promising markets, in addition to
Dubai Chamber of Commerce’s smart
services and expanded efforts to
promote Dubai as a preferred business
hub in the global arena.
August 2022 www.thefinanceworld.com 31

E-commerce
BNPL: A new replacement for credit cards?
BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) is one of the hottest trends in payments and an incredibly hot
area of investment right now. The trend is not expected to change anytime soon given
the increasing number of BNPL firms attracting investments, and growing deal sizes and
valuation. Americans are expected to make an estimated $80 billion worth of BNPL purchases
in 2022 and BNPL transactions are expected to reach 10% of all e-Commerce transactions by
2024 amounting to $120 billion.
BNPL is considered the
evolutionary descendent of
credit cards. Just like music
went from CDs to MP3s, and
most recently, streaming
music; Credit Cards went
from physical cards to virtual cards
and instant issuance to BNPL with
experience just like streaming credit
BNPL provides many benefits to both
consumers and merchants:
For consumers
● It’s a better (and modern) form
of credit compared with credit
cards. BNPL is low-cost, simple,
transparent, and provides a line of
sight for customers to pay balances.
● It’s deeply integrated into the
buying and checkout journey
making it easy for consumers to
purchase an item.
● It helps with budgeting.
● It’s easy to use and makes products
more affordable.
● It provides additional credit to
those who have reached credit card
limits and sometimes those who
don’t even have credit.
For merchants
● BNPL has helped increase
conversion rates by 2-3 times and
average cart sizes by 20% - 30%.
● Customers shop 10% - 25% more
frequently if offered a BNPL option.
● BNPL is becoming a customer
acquisition tool and merchants are
increasingly subsidizing BNPL
offers as opposed to funding deep
discounts on products.
● It helps ‘influence’ purchase
decisions if BNPL is moved up front
in the pre-purchase phase of the
customer journey as opposed to
just checkout.
● Unlike credit cards, most
BNPL providers assume fraud and
chargeback risks.
In a rapidly growing market where
customers and merchants love the
product, everyone from banking and
FinTech firms to big tech firms like
Amazon and Apple are rushing to offer
the product.
BNPL players are challenged for
profitability
Lenders don’t make money on
‘interest-free’ loans. Compared with
traditional installment loans, BNPL
makes less money for lenders with
32 www.thefinanceworld.com August 2022

today’s ‘current’ business model.
The primary revenue streams for
BNPL loans include the following:
● Merchant Discount Rate (MDR), i.e.
Fees merchants pay to BNPL firms.
● Interchange fees if a credit card is
used as part of the transaction.
● Flat per-transaction fee (in some
cases).
● Late fees (in some cases).
● Interest, if the BNPL loan defaults
to a traditional installment loan.
(Lender’s term this a “busted loan,
and the frequency with which it
occurs as the “bust rate.”)
The key issue with BNPL is that total
profit made from MDRs that range from
2% to 8% and bust rates of 25% to 35%
— combined with other fees earned
— do not equal the money made from
a traditional installment loan for the
same loan amount.
Key changes over the last 12
months
The only constant in life is changing
and the pace of change in the BNPL
industry has reached new levels. While
2019 and 2020 have been dominated
by ‘land grab’ strategies of BNPL
providers to gain market share in
‘established’ consumer segments and
attractive industries like fashion, retail,
and home improvements, we have seen
a new era of evolution in the BNPL
sector and a broader impact within the
financial services industry in 2021.
Evolution 1: Internal Disruption -
Shift to open loop systems
The success of BNPL has been
traditionally in closed-loop systems
— merchants and customers are
connected through the BNPL provider
and value exchange only happens
within the boundaries set by the BNPL
provider. In other words, merchants
need to enter a contractual agreement
with the BNPL provider, and only
customers who are signed up with
the BNPL provider can use the BNPL
service at those merchants. In return
for higher conversion rates, increased
basket sizes, and data insights,
merchants pay a service fee (typically
2–8% depending on size and industry)
to the BNPL provider.
Over the last year though we have
seen more BNPL providers like Humm
–Bundll, and Zip – Tap & Pay) as well
as established payment giants like
PayPal - Pay in 4 and Amex Plan It
offering BNPL services to customers
at any merchants where the underlying
network (e.g. Mastercard, Visa, Amex
or PayPal) is accepted. While this
provides more choice for customers,
this low-margin model creates internal
competition between the closed loop
and open loop systems.
Evolution 2: Competition - The
empire strikes back
For a long time, banks have watched
the phenomenon of BNPL from the
side-line — with a mix of skepticism
and admiration. But as the popularity
and usage of BNPL started to increase
dramatically, with more than 7m
active accounts today in Australia
(noting that most people use 2 or
more accounts in parallel), financial
incumbents finally saw the threat that
was emerging, not just the decline
in credit card usage/revenues but
more importantly the high customer
engagement and trust building with
those new BNPL players. The fear of
losing influence and control over the
customer has pushed banks to strike
back with similar products including
no-interest credit cards like NAB
StraightUp card or CBA StepPay.
With more
announcements
by Citi,
Suncorp,
and ANZ in
recent weeks,
activity levels
are reaching
a fever pitch in Australia and the
commoditization of installment-based
payments has become inevitable. The
key question is who will be the ones
to wrap their value-add propositions,
such as product recommendations,
order tracking, loyalty programs for
customers, and insight services for
merchants to deliver the best shopping
experience?
Evolution 3: Segments and
Specialisation
With saturation in core industries,
BNPL providers have been in the
pursuit of new categories like health,
travel, government payments, and
customer segments in which to grow
not only from a consumer but also
from a business perspective. Small and
medium businesses have been one of
the key focus segments over the last
months with the launch of new B2B
The key issue with
BNPL is that total
profit made from
MDRs that range
from 2% to 8% and
bust rates of 25% to
35% — combined with
other fees earned
— do not equal the
money made from a
traditional installment
loan for the same
loan amount.
products like Openpay – OpyPro and
Zip – Business Trade. In parallel, BNPL
providers have adopted specialization
strategies with category-specific value
propositions and a focus on becoming
the preferred payment option/category
leader like Openpay for Automotive,
Humm for home improvements.
Evolution 4: Ecosystem play - from
product to platform
The need to diversify not only
products and services but also to
access new revenue streams and
increase their future relevance has led
to various partnering models being
adopted. An example of one with a
focus on customer retention is the
partnerships between Klarna and
Flybuys or Humm/bundll and Velocity
Frequent Flyer to drive loyalty and
purchase frequency. Others have
chosen to move from a product to a
platform play, a shift that has been redefined
by the acquisition of Afterpay
by Square along with Afterpay’s
partnership with Westpac.
August 2022 www.thefinanceworld.com 33

Mergers and Acquisitions
Payments FinTech
Wizz to Acquire
UAE Exchange
Payments solutions FinTech Wizz
Financial is preparing to rebrand
after getting the approval of the
United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct
Authority (FCA) to acquire UAE
Exchange U.K. Limited. The approval
comes on the heels of green lights
from the United Arab Emirates and
regulatory entities in the United States
and the Middle East. Wizz Financial
will rebrand UAE Exchange U.K. as
it focuses on synchronizing all its
offerings between the U.S., U.K., UAE
and India, according to the release.
Bahrain’s GFH acquires US student
housing portfolio
According to GFH, its investment strategy in the student housing sector
focuses on building a diversified portfolio that targets universities within
the top public 150 universities in the US, which are considered flagship
universities in their respective states. These are institutions with a proven
pedigree, strong academic and sporting facilities and that have shown steady
growth in enrolments year on year. The Bahrain-based financial group pointed out
that the student housing sector had performed well historically, even during the
pandemic, as was evident by an average stable occupancy rate well above 90% and
an equivalent high rental collections rate.
Eshraq Investments
closer to acquire
Goldilocks Fund
Abu Dhabi-based Eshraq
Investments said it was in
the final stages of its full
acquisition of Goldilocks Fund. The
company is in the process of reducing
the share capital from AED2.325
billion to AED1.427 billion to offset
accumulated losses and is also working
on the subsequent capital increase
in exchange for the acquisition. This
acquisition is expected to enable the
Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange-listed
Eshraq to increase its profitability.
Dar Al Takaful and
Watania complete
merger
Watania shareholders received
0.734375 DAT shares for
every Watania share that they
owned, to create DAT, with a total
issued share capital of Dhs260,156,250.
Starting July 4, the merged company
is trading on the Dubai Financial
Market. The company will also
leverage its future-looking operating
model to optimize sales channels and
cross-selling opportunities through
increased geographic reach and by
capitalizing on its larger underwriting
capacity, to improve re-takaful/
reinsurance terms and offer reliable,
more comprehensive, and favorable
coverage for participants across
several differentiated products.
UAE-based Lyve
acquires Jeebly
The acquisition is part of
Lyve’s plans for the next two
years, with more than $150
million in planned investments, the
company said in a statement. It did
not, however, disclose the financial
details of its deal with Jeebly. Lyve,
which has operations in 20 countries,
uses cloud-based platforms and
services to enable “hundreds of
millions of orders” every month on
behalf of leading brands across the
e-commerce, food and beverage,
grocery and healthcare industries.
Established in 2016, Jeebly has
onboarded more than 500 key global
and regional clients across several
industries.
34 www.thefinanceworld.com August 2022

DP World’s Imperial acquires stake in Nigerian FMCG
Imperial, a company owned by
DP World, now owns a majority
of Africa FMCG Distribution Ltd.
(AFMCG). From a supply chain and
fintech viewpoint, DP World finds
strategic value in the acquisition of the
Nigerian company. It also strengthens
its position on a continent with 54
countries and 1.4 billion people. The
action fits in with Dubai’s five-year aim
to increase trade ties with worldwide
markets that are showing promise.
Kuwait Finance House to buy Bahrain’s Ahli United
KFH will offer one share for
every 2.695 shares of Ahli,
implying an offer price of $1.04
per share, a 13% premium to the
stock’s Wednesday close. Kuwait’s
central bank, which had asked KFH
to reconsider the deal during the
pandemic in 2020, approved the
purchase. The initial offer in 2019 was
worth $8.8 billion, with KFH offering
one share for every 2.32558 Ahli
shares. KFH’s shares have risen 66%
since then, valuing the lender at $25.8
billion. Ahli is up 27% in the same
period, giving the bank a market value
of $10.3 billion.
August 2022 www.thefinanceworld.com 35

Interview
Exclusive to The Finance World Magazine
Marwa Al Mansoori
CEO of Prosper Partners Consultancy and
Board Member in Abu Dhabi Chambers of
Commerce and Industry
Being an inspiration to many people, Marwa Al Mansoori
is reinventing entrepreneurship and pushing the limits of
traditional business. She is dedicated to pursuing optimal
growth and sustainability practices in a variety of financial
sector businesses, undertaking research and development
to create effective and efficient international business
frameworks in the UAE.
Please tell us in brief about you
and your journey as an executive
and inspiring leader in the world of
finance.
Since graduating from Edinburgh,
I’ve come to realize that my most
enduring ability is entrepreneurship.
According to Google, an entrepreneur
is someone who establishes a firm
and takes financial risks in the hopes
of making money, although everyone
misunderstands what that means.
My definition of an entrepreneur is
a person setting their own personal
understanding of how to live. A person
who creates their own mindset and
regulations and a person who accepts
being underestimated all the time.
Entrepreneurship is a word that comes
up with skills like commitment, belief,
creativity and the most important thing
of not being afraid of failure. The first
step to take if you want to become an
entrepreneur is you should redefine
failure to success.
Within the past 7 years of being an
executive, my colleagues are my family
and they have full confidence in me.
This is a responsibility I have to be
thankful for, because it’s my everyday
fuel to not let anyone down. Nowadays
an executive is a title, to mentally trick
you to show respect. But nowadays
loyalty and dedication is what makes
you gain respect and not a title.
I’ve been chosen as a board member
in the Abu Dhabi Businesswomen
Council in July 2022, which aims at
empowering young and entrepreneur
women to contribute to the economic
development of the UAE and playing
active participation in including those
women to be change-makers in the
business sector. I honestly believe that
we as women can do much with the
right tools, access to opportunities and
support needed. As a board member,
I try to use my voice to advocate for
enabling each and every woman to take
an active part in her small community
and believe in the impact she can make
no matter how small it is.
What’s your greatest
entrepreneurial achievement to be
proud of?
When COVID hit the world, I
discovered that I have a talent for
building businesses to make money. I
36 www.thefinanceworld.com August 2022

am currently working as a consultant
within international companies on
projects in the world and space. I
launched Prosper Partners Consultancy
in 2019 which aims to provide a strong
infrastructure that adapts real-time
strategies to empower startups, ideas,
and global businesses.
We combine our strategies with
global best practices and deep data
analytics to help our clients create
change that matters. The projects
I work on cover bitcoin mining,
alternative energy, organizational
restructuring, business development
blockchain, metaverse, and currently
space innovation labs. In continuing
with my journey, I took on a project
with a global corporation called
Metavisionaries in June 2022,
Metavisionaries is founded by space
scientists including former chief
scientist of NASA Jim Green, Dr. Tara
Ruttley former associate scientist at
NASA, and its CEO Wasim Ahmed. Our
mission is to utilize space and frontier
technologies and give access to the
masses through our Metaverse and
Space Innovation Labs.
What innovative ideas have you
used that led to profitability in
your business venture?
I’ve been able to launch Malena
App - the first mobile platform for
the cosmetology industry in the GCC
in 2018, and raised around $1million
in seed funding within 8 months,
Malena operated till COVID-19 hit.
No Matter how simple your idea is or
how crazy it seems to other people,
you should never hesitate. The best
ideas are the ones you stop and think
“It’s impossible” or “I’m sure someone
thought of it before and it didn’t work”.
Believing in your idea - knowing the
“WHY” - commitment and discipline
is the remedy towards success.
Prosperity is around the corner you
just need to listen carefully.
Currently, I am fully dedicated
to my consultancy and working on
international projects, this is when
I comprehended my skill was to
support others, develop ideas and
businesses, providing solid financial
data to forecast any business’s future
income based on real scenarios. The
main fuel within my consultancy is
private and public partnership which
is the most highlighted prospect in the
consultancy.
What future plans do you foresee
from UAE leadership to promote
sustainable economic growth?
The UAE focuses on achieving
sustainable development goals that
will enable access to clean energy,
quality education, and sustainable
economic growth. Additionally, as
I previously stated, I do not see my
duty as anything less than the leader
of enormous change projects, and this
is the UAE’s vision, which always has
a sense of responsibility towards the
rest of the globe. Therefore, I expect
projects very soon to solve major crises
and create educational, economic,
and health opportunities that will be
a lamp of light for the world. UAE is
pioneering in all sustainability projects,
trends, and ideas we witness in the
world, starting from Expo2020 and
beyond, we’ve witnessed initiatives
from various governmental and
private sector entities that aim at
creating sustainable solutions from
reducing plastic waste to saving energy
resources and moving to electrical
cars, etc.
One of the key examples is the
efforts of the Ministry of Climate
Change and Environment in partnering
with local and international entities in
addressing Sustainable Development
Goals of zero hunger, responsible
consumption and production, climate
action, life below water and life on
land. Also, implementing the UAE
Agenda 2030 for a more sustainable
future.
What upcoming trends in digital
transformation do you see in
Dubai?
I have been nominated in July
2021 as the youngest board member
of the Abu Dhabi Chamber and
the subcommittee of the digital
transformation committee. Our main
task is to raise the competitiveness of
the business sector and expand the
scope of opportunities in general. This
is done by providing empowerment,
studying all that is available, and
creating well thought out plans.
The UAE government is a
good example of accelerating the
achievement of actual steps. One
of the very good examples is the
new mandate announced lately by
the Government of Dubai on the
“Metaverse Strategy” which aims to
increase the number of blockchain
No Matter how
simple your idea is or
how crazy it seems
to other people,
you should never
hesitate. The best
ideas are the ones
you stop and think
“It’s impossible” or
“I’m sure someone
thought of it before
and it didn’t work”.
Believing in your
idea - knowing the
“WHY” - commitment
and discipline is
the remedy towards
success. Prosperity is
around the corner you
just need to listen
carefully.
August 2022 www.thefinanceworld.com 37

Interview
One of the key
examples is the
efforts of the Ministry
of Climate Change
and Environment in
partnering with local and
international entities in
addressing Sustainable
Development Goals of
zero hunger, responsible
consumption and
production, climate
action, life below water
and life on land. Also,
implementing the UAE
Agenda 2030 for a more
sustainable future.
● Make a big dream with small plans - No
matter what you want to achieve in life, you
need to dream big and start small. We all have
dreams and goals to pursue and what makes
your dreams come true are the intensity of your
thoughts and the power of your actions.
● The difference between fear and cowardice is
the next step – If you have the courage to start
and face things than you have the courage to
succeed.
● Effort is never wasted -An effort is never
wasted, even if the outcome is disappointing.
Because doing so always makes you more
prepared, capable & experienced.
and metaverse companies in the UAE
5 times in 5 years and create 40,000
virtual job opportunities placing UAE
first in the Arab region and one of
the top 10 cities worldwide in the
metaverse economy.
Please share some of the
key pointers for any budding
entrepreneur from your diverse
experience across multiple
responsibilities and projects that
you have been involved in.
To succeed, you need to dream
big and trust yourself that you can
achieve your goals, I have understood
this through my past experience
in mentoring 35 women who have
entrepreneurial projects and who
needed help to start and convert these
ideas into real projects. The common
factor I noticed between all of them
is the lack of self-confidence, all they
needed was a push and the motivation
that they were capable of doing it,
especially because in some Arab
societies, women are less empowered
with resources and mentoring while if
they’re given all the trust, they innovate
and bloom! There will be moments
of self-doubt and this is normal, all
successful people come across those
feelings, the key is to know how to
deal with that doubt and turn it into
something meaningful in your life
and business alike, with the support
of experts and people you trust.
Everything comes with a cost, you’ll
have sleepless nights and that’s okay,
you’ll witness the results of your hard
work which always pays off!
Never underestimate any project or
person you work with, there’s always
something to learn as long as you’re
open to new experiences and flexible
to accept the change.
Being a leader in your project isn’t
about just leading a team towards
fulfilling certain tasks but trusting
your team, and giving them the power
to express themselves and own their
tasks to do them innovatively in
their way.
Lastly, what message do you have
for our readers?
Always embrace the opportunities
thrown your way, you don’t know what
lies beyond that might change your life
entirely.
“Never underestimate your role,
there will be no change without you
first.”
“Read, learn, post info, change
behavior …”
38 www.thefinanceworld.com August 2022

Investment and Funding
Different SWFs within GCC and their ongoing
investment deals
UAE is, in its literal sense, booming in the sector of wealth funds as the leading sovereign
wealth funds together have triumphantly emerged as the best in the GCC region, with
combined assets of $1.4 trillion. This has been possible with the rampant profit in the equity
values across the market in recent times and thus has aided in the hike of the asset values of
sovereign wealth funds in the global platform.
The surge in the external
reserves of GCC-based
sovereign wealth funds along
with assistance from the
government has promoted
the way for better economic
stability and helped in supporting the
system post the global pandemic. The
sovereign wealth funds are playing a
pivotal role in amping up the world’s
economy. It is because these stateowned
institutions are accruing
funds from numerous state-affiliated
resources and thereupon investing
such funds in plausible and thriving
sectors such as real estate and shares.
The President of Sovereign
Wealth Fund Institute, a global
company focused on the analysis
of public asset owners, Mr. Michael
Maduell purported that, “Sovereign
Wealth Funds of the Arab world
play an integral role in the health
of the financial ecosystem. This is
particularly true for funds located
in the GCC, which host some of the
largest sovereign wealth funds on
the planet.” Their reports have also
suggested that economies that align on
a specific product or service only tend
to implement sovereign wealth funds
to diversify their income streams.
Based on the overall fund size,
the top largest wealth funds are
enlisted below:
Abu Dhabi
Investment
Authority, UAE
Also known as the
ADIA, the Abu
Dhabi Investment
Authority invests
funds on behalf of
the government
of Abu Dhabi. Founded in
the year 1976, it recourses
the funds for the Emirate of
Abu Dhabi and is officially
declared the largest
sovereign wealth fund in
the Middle East. It primarily
bases the funding on Abu
Dhabi’s oil exports and a
major chunk of the revenue
generated is through this
medium. Its funds exceed
over $696.66 billion in
2022. The sovereign wealth
fund invests in a global
portfolio in more than 24
various asset classes and
subcategories.
August 2022 www.thefinanceworld.com 39

Investment and Funding
Qatar Investment
Authority, Qatar
The Qatar Investment Authority
or the QIA aims at developing,
investing, and managing the
state’s reserve funds and
thereupon also investigates
other assets as well. It was
established in the year 2005 and is new
in this industry. However, it does aim to
create a long-term value and effect for
Qatar and aid in the promotion of the
country’s economic diversity and the
different initiatives that are associated
with it. Its funds value up to $320
billion.
Mubadala Investment Company, UAE
With a merger between the Mubadala
Development Company and the
International Petroleum Investment
Company in the year 2017, the Mubadala
Investment Company was established.
It was founded by the government of
Abu Dhabi with an aim to channel the booming funds
resourced from oil into the development of their economy
and their country. With a whooping fund of $228.93 billion,
the Mubadala Investment Company provides for an
extremely lucrative and diverse portfolio that ranges to
over 50 countries and has over 1,00,000 employees.
40 www.thefinanceworld.com August 2022

Kuwait Investment Authority, Kuwait
The Kuwait Investment Authority or the KIA is officially one of the oldest
sovereign wealth funds with its establishment in the year 1953. It was
initially founded through the Kuwait Investment Board. During that time,
the organization was established to invest the surplus oil revenues and
reduce the alignment of Kuwait towards its oil reserves. It is with the
primary focus that it will allow future generations to face the uncertainties
of the global economy and natural resources harmoniously along with a greater
level of confidence. Currently, it is residing at a fund status of $592 billion.
However, despite the decision of the Kuwaiti Government to decrease the funding
to cover the deficit of 7.7 billion dinars which is around $25.34 billion in the
fiscal year ending in March 2020, the Kuwaiti Investment Authority still holds its
position. It successfully maintains the spot of being the second largest sovereign
wealth fund amongst all the Middle East nations.
Public Investment
Fund, Saudi Arabia
TThe Public Investment Fund
or the PIF is considered
one of the oldest sovereign
wealth funds as well with
it being established in the
year 1971. However, with the
introduction of ‘Saudi Arabia’s Vision
2030’ in the year 2016 to ramp up the
economic policies prevalent in the
nation at that time, the significance
of the Public Investment Fund has
drastically changed for the betterment
of the system. Vision 2030 seeks to
have immediate control over the funds
valued at more than $2 trillion in assets
and this has the potential to make it
the largest sovereign wealth fund in the
world. As the aim is to concentrate on
the paradigm shift from the absolute
reliance on oil and revenues generated
from it, the fund has taken drastic steps
towards diversifying itself and always
looking out for more unique sectors.
With over $320 billion in funding, the
Public Investment Fund focuses on
investing in various high-loop projects
such as Virgin Galactic, Blackstone
Infrastructure Fund, and Softbank
Vision Fund.
It is quite evident that the sovereign
wealth funds sector has proven to be
quite successful in the Middle Eastern
economical ecosystem. Also, the
governments have been implementing
various schemes, initiatives, and
regulations to supervise the efficient
and speedy growth of this sector.
However, it has evolved from various
experts that it is yet to be applied when
investing in areas around blockchain
and how it pertains to energy usage.
Time will indeed tell us the relevance
and show how different governments
are improvising ways to help the
whooping growth of the crypto
ecosystem hand in hand.
August 2022 www.thefinanceworld.com 41

Investment and Funding
New Dubai real estate law to
boost property investments
Digital banking
YAP gets $41
million investment
YAP, a Dubai-based start-up that
operates a digital banking app,
has acquired $41 million in
funding to support its expansion
throughout the Middle East, Africa, and
South Asia. The new investment came
from Saudi Arabia’s Aljazira Capital
alongside other investors including
Abu Dawood Group, Astra Group, and
Audacia Capital.
Dubai has introduced a new law to support the growth of real estate
investment funds in the emirate. The law effectively creates a register for
property investment funds, whose members will be given certain privileges
to assist them in their investment activities in emirate’s real estate market.
Issued by Dubai Ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the new law
is part of the emirate’s ambition to be a “global real estate investment destination
and attract global property investment funds,” according to a statement on WAM.
Saudi and Ennismore to establish
$400m hospitality investment fund
Ajman to invest
$27.8 million in
infrastructure
The Crown Prince of Ajman,
Sheikh Ammar bin Humaid
Al Nuaimi, has announced an
AED102 million package of
infrastructure development projects
in the northern emirate. It comes as
the emirate aims to modernize its
economy, with a particular focus on
the fields of architecture and
construction.
Saudi Arabia’s Tourism
Development Fund has signed
an agreement with London’s
Ennismore and Al-Rajhi Capital
to establish SR1.5 billion ($400 million)
investment fund in the hospitality
sector. Through the partnership, the
fund aims to advance lifestyle hotels
and enhance tourist destinations within
the Kingdom.
42 www.thefinanceworld.com August 2022

Lord Abbett opens first Middle
East office in DIFC
Lord Abbet, a US-based
investment bank, has
opened its first Middle
East office in Dubai
International Financial Centre
(DIFC), which will serve as
its regional hub. The move
follows the Dubai Financial
Services Authority’s (DFSA)
approval of the American
firm to operate as an asset
manager.
“We are delighted to launch our MEA business
within DIFC. This strategic hub will allow us
to serve our regional client base even better by
operating closer to them, while also bringing
the full breadth of Lord Abbett’s investment
capabilities to the Middle East market,”
commented James Savastano, Senior Executive
Officer and Head of MEA at Lord Abbett.
Saudi Arabia
records SAR
2.19bn in
venture capital
investments
Saudi Arabian startups grew by
244 percent to a record high of
SAR2.19bn in H1 2022 compared
to H1 2021. The kingdom
advanced to become the second-most
active VC market in MENA by the
number of deals, which rose by 36
percent to 79 deals in H1 2022 versus
H1 2021 while maintaining its position
as the second-most funded market in
MENA over H1 2022.
Mubadala wealth fund supports
German insurtech Wefox
Wefox, a Berlin-based provider
of insurance technology, has
completed a $400 million
fundraising round with
Mubadala, Abu Dhabi wealth fund.
The Series D round has increased the
company’s post-money valuation to
$4.5 billion, it said in a release. “This
new valuation of $4.5 billion is a clear
validation of our business model,
which focuses on indirect distribution
via agents rather than direct. This
makes our business one of the most
credible insurtechs in the market right
now,” its CEO and founder Julian
Teicke said.
Julian Teicke, CEO and Founder of
Wefox
Abu Dhabi fund
organizes young
entrepreneurs’
camp
The Khalifa Fund for Enterprise
Development (KFED) has
announced the fourth edition of
its ‘Venturist Entrepreneurship’
summer program, which will take
place in 2022. The upcoming camp will
be the first physical, in-person camp,
following three virtual camps which
commenced in 2020. The camp aims
to inspire innovative young students
aged 10-18, with a mix of workshops
and private sessions led by renowned
speakers who will share their expertise
across various business verticals.
August 2022 www.thefinanceworld.com 43

Investment and Funding
UAE investor E20 funds $ 2.5m to Arabic portal
Omooma
Omooma, an Arabic
maternal training
platform that
provides expertled
video content about
pregnancy, maternity, and
newborn care, has received
$2.5 million in funding
from UAE investor E20.
Offering professionally
curated motherhood videos,
this funding supports
Omooma’s strategic move
to double the volume of its
educational content by the
end of 2022.
Mubadala leads Klarna funding round
The Swedish buy-now-pay-later
(BNPL) firm Klarna has managed
to obtain new capital, backed by
Mubadala Investments in Abu
Dhabi, despite valuations plummeting
by almost 85%. Founded in Sweden in
2005, Klarna was valued at $45.6 billion
following a $639 million funding round
led by Japan’s SoftBank last year. The
most recent $800 million financing
round was supported by the Canada
Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP
Investments) apart from Mubadala and
included existing investors Sequoia
and Silver Lake.
44 www.thefinanceworld.com August 2022

European
Union to tame
unregulated
crypto market
To tame a volatile “Wild West”
market, the European Union
has agreed to ground-breaking
new laws that will require licenses
for cryptocurrency businesses and
client protections for enterprises that
issue and sell digital tokens in the
EU. Globally, crypto assets are largely
unregulated, with national operators in
the EU required to show controls for
combating money laundering.
Cryptocurrency
declines to
lowest level
since 2020
Trading volumes for
cryptocurrencies have decreased
amid a terrible first half of the
year for the sector. The month of June
alone saw spot volumes drop nearly 28
percent to $1.41tn as Bitcoin tumbled,
the lowest since December 2020.
Meantime, derivatives trading volumes
were off by 7 percent during the month,
the lowest since July 2021.
Crypto
platform
Celsius
files for US
bankruptcy
Cryptocurrency investment
platform Celsius announced that
it had filed for bankruptcy in the
US, a month after it froze withdrawals
from its platform, in the latest sign of
an industry in turmoil. Celsius, which
suspended withdrawals in mid-June,
said it was seeking to restructure in
a way that would maximize value for
all stakeholders, and said it had $167
million of cash available to meet urgent
needs in the meantime.
UAE investors
can now crypto
trade in dirhams
With the help of the National
Bank of Ras Al Khaimah and
Kraken, one of the largest
cryptocurrency exchanges in the
world, UAE investors now have the
option to trade digital assets in dirhams
through their local bank accounts.
Cryptocurrency investors in the
Emirates currently have to use banks
or other third-party providers outside
of the UAE to fund their trades, often
incurring high foreign exchange rates
and fees, longer lead times, and are
subject to overseas jurisdiction asset
governance, Kraken and RAK Bank
said in a joint statement.
Cryptocurrency
Dubai grants
provisional
virtual asset
licence to
Fintonia
Financial services company
Fintonia Group has secured a
provisional virtual asset license
to operate in Dubai. The company,
which is based in Singapore, obtained
a provisional license from Dubai’s
Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority
(Vara). The license will allow Fintonia
to participate in Dubai’s “fast-growing
digital assets ecosystem by operating
crypto native services under full
regulatory supervision” and offer
financial solutions to clients in new
geographies.
Crypto
exchange OKX
gets virtual
asset license in
Dubai
OKX has received a provisional
virtual-asset license in Dubai
and intends to establish a
regional hub in the city, which has been
attempting to attract cryptocurrency
firms from around the world. The
license will allow OKX, one of the
world’s largest cryptocurrency
exchanges by trading volume to
provide access to some products and
services to investors in the UAE.
August 2022 www.thefinanceworld.com 45

Fintech
Faisal Al Haroun, SVP of Tap Payments Group
F
aisal
Al Haroun is the Group SVP and the Managing Director of Tap Payments in
Kuwait. Faisal comes with over 14 years of experience in the financial industry,
mainly within the investment sector. He was also actively involved in the launch of
multiple tech start-ups in the region.
Exclusive to The Finance World Magazine
Tap is also one of the most regulated
paytech companies in the region that
allows you to securely accept all the
popular local payment methods such
as Visa, MasterCard, mada, Knet,
Benefit, and more as well as the recently
popularized payment methods such as
digital wallets and Buy Now Pay Later.
Please tell us a bit about what is Tap Payments.
Tap Payments is a paytech company serving businesses
across Middle East & North Africa (MENA). We aim to
contribute toward having a cashless society by bridging the
gaps within the fragmented payment landscape across the
region. There are many payment methods available in this
region and we are trying to find a common ground to enable
all those payment methods in an effortless way for all types
of businesses.
What makes Tap unique from other digital payment
service providers?
A lot of factors make Tap unique. As mentioned, we are a
paytech company that helps businesses sell across the region
while offering all the payment methods their customers love
and trust. We build powerful payment products that help
with payment acceptance, billing, reconciliation, and more
for businesses across the region. In a way, we provide an
infrastructure that supports all business sizes and models
and supports them in simplifying the payments arm of their
business operations. Today, Tap is also one of the most
regulated paytech companies in the region that allows you to
securely accept all the popular local payment methods such
as Visa, MasterCard, mada, Knet, Benefit, and more as well
as the recently popularized payment methods such as digital
wallets and Buy Now Pay Later.
What upcoming challenges do you foresee in the
finance industry?
There are a lot of challenges in this industry as it keeps
evolving. Fintech is still a relatively new industry in the
region and the regulatory framework for the industry is still
under work. But what excites us is that at Tap, we work
alongside the regulators across the region to solve these
challenges together and support the growth of innovative
ideas within the region.
Lastly, what message do you have for our readers?
There are no longer barriers for anyone to open a business.
Today, you can open a business in a few minutes and start
accepting payments in a few minutes as well. So, whoever
has an idea should take the plunge and you never know,
this could be the new chapter of your career. I encourage
everyone to try our services and we hope they like it as much
as we do.
46 www.thefinanceworld.com August 2022

Rising flow of AI and VR Start-ups in UAE
Start-ups
A thriving innovation system, excellent regulatory environment, progressive government
policies, and geographical location that offer strategic access to global markets are the basic
components that can attract Venture Capital (VC) firms to a country. Going by this dictum,
it is no wonder Dubai has emerged as the hotbed for VC funding since the emirate offers
everything that VC firms are looking for in an investment-friendly destination.
Venture Capital (VC) Investors’
rising flow of investments
in the emirate’s start-ups
is evidence enough and is
attributed to the nation’s
quick economic recovery
from the pandemic-induced slowdown
and a host of government measures
that create a congenial climate for VC
funding. “VC plays an important role
in increasing the competitiveness of
our start-ups, particularly in innovative
and technology-based areas,” asserts
President and CEO, Dubai Chamber of
Commerce and Industry, H.E. Hamad
Buamim.
VC investments, undoubtedly, are
happening across several sectors. They
have, however, become a main source
of funds for start-ups operating in the
food and health sectors, especially
after Covid-19. VC investors were
encouraged by the increase in the
demand for medical services during
the pandemic, Buamim reveals, to
support more health-tech companies.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE),
interestingly, is ranked among the most
attractive countries in the world for
entrepreneurs to start a business.
The latest Dubai Chamber statistics
show MENA Region hosts 587 scaleups
that raised VC funding to the tune of
$9.1 billion which is a 47% increase
since 2020. The UAE, however, leads
the show hosting 251 scaleups raising
60% of the total VC funding at $ 5.4
billion. The data further confirms that
it holds to its position as the de facto
tech city hub of the region, aggregating
40% of MENA start-ups attracting most
of the funding, and being home to most
of the region’s tech giants.
“We have become a hub for VC
investors,” says Hassan Al Hashemi,
Vice President of International
Relations at Dubai Chamber, and he
lists out various government initiatives
like free zone incubator programs that
“We have become a hub for
VC investors,” says Hassan
Al Hashemi, Vice President
of International Relations at
Dubai Chamber, and he lists
out various government
initiatives like free zone
incubator programs that
offer a business-setup
framework, co-working
space, knowledge, and
partnerships. “We will
continue supporting a
growing number of startups
and contribute to the
country’s digital economy,”
Hashemi assures.
H.E. Hamad Buamim, President and
CEO, Dubai Chamber of Commerce
and Industry)
offer a business-setup framework,
co-working space, knowledge, and
partnerships. “We will continue
supporting a growing number of startups
and contribute to the country’s
digital economy,” Hashemi assures.
Having found success in attracting
VC funds, Dubai meanwhile, does
not hide its ambition to emerge as a
regional hub for cryptocurrencies.
“This will bring in more VC
investments,” adds Buamim pointing
out how global VC investments in
blockchain and cryptocurrencies
reached a peak of $ 26 billion.
“Many global investors and venture
capitalists,” Buamim says, “are already
supporting our home-grown crypto
business.”
He is optimistic that the country’s
blockchain and crypto initiatives
would further accelerate the growth
and expansion of crypto companies
in the region with Dubai playing a
key role. Interestingly, Dubai-based
venture capitalist firm Cypher Capital
recently launched a $ 100 million seed
fund aimed at investing in digital assets
and cryptocurrencies. The company’s
founder Bijan Alizadeh is also planning
to open a crypto, blockchain, and
digital asset hub in Dubai.
The integrated hub that Cypher
is planning reportedly will offer a
workspace to start-ups where they
can pitch their ideas to potential
investors. The start-ups would also
be offered mentoring, and legal and
technical advice. Cypher’s ultimate
idea, it appears, is to develop the hub
into an industry-focused networking
community. With a thriving start-up
ecosystem, industry experts say, the
UAE and Dubai have successfully
created a space making it attractive for
venture capitalists to channel
their funds.
August 2022 www.thefinanceworld.com 47

Start-ups
360VUZ
Founded Year: 2017
Founders: Khaled Zaatarah
Funding: USD 8M
Investors: Knollwood
Investment Advisory,
Impact46, Dubai Angel
Investors, and 18 more
investors
360VUZ provides a VR-based
360-degree video streaming mobile
application for consumers. It allows
users to view, and watch live 360
degrees exclusive 3D videos and
channels of the latest events like
concerts, football, basketball, racing,
car drifting, water sports, and many
other sports, interviews, & more, as
destinations, adventures, places &
behind the scenes pre-recorded and
live streaming experiences in a virtual
environment. Also allows users to
watch VR videos and stream 3D VR
content through a mobile phone or
tablet. The app is compatible with iOS
and Android devices.
360VUZ allows users to
view, and watch live 360
degrees exclusive 3D
videos and channels of the
latest events like concerts,
football, basketball, racing,
car drifting, water sports,
and many other sports,
interviews, & more
Designhubz
Founded Year: 2016
Founders: Nadim Habr,
Chady Karlitch and Maksym
Zubkov
Funding: USD 120K
Investors: Techstars, Hub71
Designhubz provides augmented
and virtual reality in-store shopping
experiences for online retailers.
Enables users to visualize and explore
3D designs of products in three
dimensions in real-time. Claims to
be compatible with all browsers and
devices.
PharmaVgate
Academy
Founded Year: 2019
Founders: Sara Ramadan
Investors: Sheraa
Provider of virtual reality-based
healthcare applications. The immersive
learning platform allows pharma
learners to access realistic 3D
spaces and objects to learn, observe,
practice, and apply skills in a virtual
environment.
Real Vision
Founded Year: 2007
Founders: Damian Horner,
Grant Williams, Raoul Pal,
Remi Tetot
Funding: $50M
Investors: Twofour54 Abu
Dhabi
Real Vision develops stereoscopic
3D & cinematic VR content, as well
as VR/AR solutions for marketing.
The company has designed VR/AR
content for several industries including
Real Estate, Tourism, Culture,
Entertainment, etc. Its clients are from
different countries including Singapore,
South Korea, etc.
Mytriphoto
Founded Year: 2014
Founders: Elisa Andrade
Zarges, Mauro Arrau
Funding: $30k
Investors: TURN8
Mytriphoto provides user-generated
content enabling marketing solutions
for brands, agencies, and businesses.
It offers a 360VR camera device;
customers can connect to the device
through the available tablets on the
event or through their smartphones
and allows the user along with their
friends to take 360 VR photos. The
user receives photos with the brand
message in their e-mail and enables
them to share on social media.
48 www.thefinanceworld.com August 2022

AR Engineering
Founded Year: 2020
Founders: Akram
Amir, Yasir Al-Hilali
Investors: Sheraa Sharjah
AR Engineering provides an
augmented reality-based
engineering educational
platform. Enables STEM
students and teaching
professionals to visualize and realize
complex systems in a superimposed
environment. Features digital twin
models that include aspects of the
physical asset or larger system.
Every start-up, irrespective of the
nature and size of operations, requires
funds to convert its innovative ideas
into reality. Most businesses generally
fail because of their inability to raise
sufficient funds. After all, you need
some money or capital to keep your
business going at every stage. If you’re
new to the world of start-ups and have
no idea about raising funds, then you
need to make yourself familiar with
these different stages first.
● Self-funding
An entrepreneur should ascertain
how much amount he/she can
contribute from his/her own pockets.
Assess all of your investments and
savings kept in multiple accounts and
approach your friends and family. This
stage involves fewer complexities
and documentation, and even your
friends and family may be ready to
lend at a cheaper rate. Self-funding or
bootstrapping is apt if your start-up
requires a little investment earlier.
● Seed-capital
Seed capital is an investment made
at the preliminary stage of the start-up.
This helps the business in identifying
and creating a perfect direction for
its start-up. Funds raised at this stage
are used for knowing the customers’
demands, preferences, and tastes,
and then formulating a product or
service accordingly. Most budding
entrepreneurs raise this capital from
friends, mentors, and family, while
some take up loans in exchange for
common stock.
● Venture
When the company’s final products
or services reach the market, venture
capital funding comes into the
picture. Regardless of the products’
profitability, every business considers
using this stage that further involves
multiple rounds of funding:
● Series A
Series A investment, being the very
first round of funding, doesn’t ask for
external funding. At this stage, startups
have formulated a specific plan for
their product or service. It is mostly
used for marketing and improving your
brand credibility, tapping new markets,
and helping the business grow.
● Series B
When a business relies on Series B
investment, it means that the product is
marketed correctly, and the customers
are buying the product or service as
decided earlier. Such funding helps a
business in paying salaries, hiring more
staff, improving the infrastructure, and
establishing it as a global player.
● Series C
A start-up can receive as many
rounds of investment as possible, there
is no certain restriction on it. However,
during Series C investment, the owners,
as well as the investors, are pretty
cautious about funding this round. The
more the investment rounds, the more
the business’ equity is released.
● IPO (Initial Public Offering)
When a start-up decides to raise
funds from the public including
institutional investors as well as
individuals, by selling its shares, it
is known as an IPO (Initial Public
Offering). IPO is commonly related to
‘going public’ as the public now wants
to invest in your company by buying
shares.
It’s not an obligation for the founders
to disclose their financial statements
to the public if they go for an IPO. But
the company must submit information
related to financial statements, the
purpose of raising funds, etc. to the
SEBI. An IPO helps you grow and
diversify in areas of your choice.
For taking your start-up to the next
level, you should know which stage
of funding you want to go for, and for
what purpose. Such decisions made
at the right time can be boon for your
business.
August 2022 www.thefinanceworld.com 49

Start-up News
UAE partners with startup Deel
for foreign workers visas
The UAE is forging a
partnership with startup
Deel to speed up the visa
process for foreign workers,
offering a new tool in the country’s
push to attract international
talent and become a regional
technology hub. The global payroll
and onboarding company offers
hiring and payment services for
companies that are aiming to
recruit international employees
or contractors. Payroll and
onboarding company Deel will be
able to offer its customers, which
include the likes of Coinbase
Global Inc. and Shopify Inc., faster
access to visas through a strategic
partnership with the UAE’s office
for AI, digital economy, and
remote work applications.
ShopDoc’s first metaverse venture
for schools to open in UAE
The world’s first metaverse primary health initiative for schools will get
off the ground in the UAE when ShopDoc, an Indian healthcare startup,
announces its ‘My School Clinix’ a metaverse clinic for schools—soon.
The project will be piloted across one hundred select schools in the UAE in the
initial phase. “My School Clinix will be the world’s first metaverse primary clinic
exclusively for schools in the UAE,” Shihab Makaniyil, founder and chief executive
officer of ShopDoc, said.
UAE tech startup
Supy $ 8m
in new funding
round
Supy, a UAE-based technology startup
that streamlines transactions
between restaurants and suppliers,
raised $8 million in new funding round
as the company aims to boost its
technology capabilities and expand
into new markets. The latest funding
round, which was led by Dubai’s earlystage
venture capital firm Beco Capital,
also included participation by existing
investors such as Valia Ventures and
Cotu Ventures, Supy.
UAE’s first
q-commerce
marketplace
Veppy.com to
launch
On August 27, Veppy.com, the first
quick-commerce (q-commerce)
marketplace in the UAE, will
open for business. Before the opening,
the start-up is seeking suppliers and
merchants to register their businesses
and advertise their products online. The
main premise behind q-commerce is that
consumers would start purchasing goods
online to receive them quickly. Real
estate developer and veppy.com founder
Moustafa Banbouk have completed
more than 50 residential and commercial
projects in his native Lebanon over the
previous three decades.
50 www.thefinanceworld.com August 2022

Hub71 releases second
edition of “The Outliers” for
start-ups
The Department of Culture and
Tourism (DCT), the Department
of Health (DoH), Thales, and
other corporate and governmental
partners have joined forces with Hub71
to establish the second edition of The
Outliers program, which will present
business and operational issues
for tech entrepreneurs to address.
Start-ups will have the opportunity to
customize their product to support
the organization’s business objectives,
develop commercial deals, and gain
up to Dhs100,000 in value to fund the
development of their proof of concept
(POC).
Funding in
Saudi Arabian
start-ups grew
by SAR 2.19bn
in H1-22
US-based startup
Way.com to
enter UAE market
US-based auto sector financial technology
startup Way.com is set to enter the UAE
market, marking yet another success for
the Gulf country’s recently announced policy
to attract foreign investments and talents in the
technology sector. Way.com, a D2C – direct-toconsumer
marketplace – will offer a basket of
services in the auto sector such as car financing,
car insurance, breakdown services, car wash,
and parking assistance to customers in the UAE
market.
The funding deployed to Saudi
Arabian start-ups grew by 244%
to a record high of SAR2.19bn
in H1 2022 compared to H1 2021.
According to the ‘H1 2022 Saudi Arabia
Venture Capital Report,’ this figure
surpassed the total amount deployed
in 2021. According to the Saudi Press
Agency, a record-high of eighty-eight
investors participated in deals closed
by Saudi start-ups in H1 2022, up 126%
versus H1 2021, where 42 percent of
the investors were from outside the
Kingdom.
Binu Girija,
Founder and
CEO of Way.com
August 2022 www.thefinanceworld.com 51

Corporate Tax
Guidelines to keep in mind while corporate tax filing
The answers are framed based on the Public Consultation Document published
by the Ministry of Finance.
planning allows the entities to reduce
their tax liability by claiming all the
rebates, exemptions, and deductions
as per the proposed CT law. An entity
must also ensure to keep proper books
of account.
Will Free Zone companies
be taxed too?
Free zone businesses
will be subject to UAE
CT, but the UAE CT
regime will continue to honor the tax
incentives currently being offered to
free zone businesses that comply with
all regulatory requirements and that
do not conduct business with
mainland UAE.
Will a free zone business be
required to register and file a CT
return?
A business established in a free zone
will be required to register and file a CT
return even if the tax liability is nil.
Further details on the compliance
obligations of free zone businesses will
be provided by the authorities in due
course.
Can we deduct salaries/
remuneration paid to shareholders
out of the profits computed for CT?
Yes, it may be possible, if these
persons are actively rendering services
to the entity and compliance with
prescribed limits and regulations.
We have different group companies.
What would be the impact of CT?
The UAE CT regime will allow tax
grouping for essentially wholly owned
groups of companies. The group entity
will be allowed to file a single tax return.
It will also help in offsetting the losses
of a company with the profit of other
group companies that are 75% or more
commonly owned, thereby reducing the
CT compliance burden.
Which incomes earned by normal
individuals are exempt from
corporate taxation?
All incomes, except business income,
generated by individuals will be outside
the ambit of corporate tax. Income
earned by individuals from a business
under a commercial license including
a freelance permit or license will be
taxable.
How can an entity save tax?
The CT tax regime of the UAE offers
one of the lowest tax rates. 0% tax is
applicable on threshold income up to
AED 375,000 and thereafter, the tax rate
is 9% on taxable income. Efficient tax
The UAE CT regime will allow tax
grouping for essentially wholly owned
groups of companies. The group
entity will be allowed to file a single
tax return. It will also help in offsetting
the losses of a company with the
profit of other group companies that
are 75% or more commonly owned,
thereby reducing the CT
compliance burden.
How to determine the tax period?
The CT will apply to financial years
starting on or after 1 June 2023. For
financial year-ending (FYE) 31 May, an
entity should file the first UAE CT return
for the FYE 31 May 2024, and for FYE
30 September should file its first UAE
CT return for the FYE 30 September
2024, and for FYE 31 December should
file their first UAE CT return for FYE 31
December 2024. The due date for filing
CT returns is 9 months from the end of
the financial year.
Will UAE CT apply to businesses in
each Emirate?
The UAE CT is a federal tax and will
therefore apply across all Emirates.
Can we adjust the loss?
Accumulated taxable losses shall be
allowed to offset future taxable profits
for an indefinite period. The brought
forward loss can be adjusted up to 75%
of the taxable income of that particular
year. However, backward offsetting of
tax loss will not be permitted. In other
words, losses of the current year are not
permitted to be offset from past
taxable profits.
Please refer to and follow the latest
rules and clarification by FTA.
Romil Singhvi, CEO
Aspire Consulting
consult@theaspireconsulting.com
52 www.thefinanceworld.com August 2022

Entrepreneur in Focus
Mudassir Sheikha
CEO and Co-founder of Careem
Mudassir Sheikha is the CEO and co-founder of Careem. He grew up in Karachi,
Pakistan, before graduating from the University of Southern California with a
degree in economics and computer science and then completing a master’s degree
in computer science at Stanford.
Karachi-born Mudassir Sheikha
was taken aback when he
discovered that Pakistan
has only a one-billion-dollar
company, outside the oil
and gas industry, which is an FMCG
company. For the next 10 years, he
set a goal of building an institution in
the region that delivers great products
and creates a positive impact on the
regional population.
Career Background
Mudassir’s career in tech started with
Silicon Valley start-up “Brience.”
Mudassir then moved back to Pakistan
and co-founded “Device Anywhere,”
a company that was acquired by
“Keynote” in 2008 before joining the
management consulting firm McKinsey
& Company in Dubai.
In 2012, he left to form a new company
with an ex-McKinsey colleague,
Magnus Olsson. The idea was not just
to build a big business, but to start one
that would have a significant impact,
be meaningful, and with a mission
to simplify and improve lives and
create an impressive organization that
inspires. From that came Careem.
Today, Careem is the leading
technology platform across the
greater Middle East and was recently
acquired by Uber in the largest industry
transaction seen in the region. Careem
operates in more than 100 cities across
14 countries with more than 1,300
colleagues and well over one million
captains on its platform.
Careem and its endeavours
Careem is the internet platform for
the greater Middle East region. A
pioneer of the region’s ride-hailing
economy, Careem is expanding
services across its platform to include
mass transportation, delivery, and
payments to become the region’s
everyday SuperApp. Careem’s mission
is to simplify and improve the lives of
people and build a lasting organization
that inspires. Careem was established
in July 2012 and was acquired by Uber
in 2020.
Dubai-based Careem has expanded
beyond its original avatar of a ridehailing
app to become a ‘Super
App’ that includes a wide range of
services such as food delivery, grocery
shopping, cleaning, shipping, and bike
rentals and this is just the beginning.
Careem’s creative transformation
toward being a ‘Super App’
differentiates it from its parent
company Uber Technologies which
still focuses on mobility.
Uber bought Careem for $3.1 billion,
and even though Uber has full
ownership, both companies operate
independently.
The acquisition had given hope to
many start-ups in the region who
dreamt of becoming the next unicorn,
utilizing the facilities offered by
the kingdom toward nurturing the
entrepreneurship sector.
Careem today operates in almost a
hundred cities in the MENA region. It
now plans to expand the ‘Super App’ in
other countries such as Saudi Arabia,
Egypt, Pakistan, Jordan, and the rest of
the GCC in the next two years.
Recently, as part of its continuous
effort to become a super app, Careem
has acquired the subscription-based
food delivery service Munch: On.
Dubai-based Careem
has expanded beyond
its original avatar of
a ride-hailing app
to become a ‘Super
App’ that includes a
wide range of services
such as food delivery,
grocery shopping,
cleaning, shipping,
and bike rentals
and this is just the
beginning.
Munch: On will cease operations
because of the acquisition, and its
services will be moved to the Careem
application, which recently expanded
to provide payments, ride-hailing, PCR
testing, food, and other services in one
integrated platform.
Munch: On is a subscription-based food
delivery service that connects clients to
meals at a discount by utilizing unused
kitchen capacity as well as packaging,
August 2022 www.thefinanceworld.com 53

Entrepreneur in Focus
Karl Magnus Olsson - Co-founder of Careem
Mudassir Sheikha – CEO and Co-founder of Careem
Dr. Abdulla Elyas – Co-founder of Careem
scheduling, and routing technologies.
It was founded in 2016. It now mainly
caters to the corporate lunch market.
Currently serving millions of
consumers around the Middle East,
the Careem app’s food offering is
expanding quickly. According to
Mudassir Sheikha (above), CEO and
Co-Founder of Careem, by purchasing
Munch: On, Careem Food will be able
to construct an even more competitive
offering with a far deeper variety of
benefits for both restaurant partners
and customers.
Eight cities in Saudi Arabia, Jordan,
the UAE, and Qatar can download the
Careem app.
Careem also announced the acquisition
of the assets of Denarii, a Dubai-based
money transfer platform that integrates
fintechs and financial institutions
with remittance aggregators, banks,
exchanges, and wallets globally. Some
key members of the Denarii team will
also be joining Careem.
Careem Pay will use Denarii’s money
transfer technology to connect
customers and Captains with
remittance services provided by
licensed providers. Careem already
has a large presence in countries
connecting some of the most active
remittance corridors in the world, such
as the UAE, KSA, and Pakistan.
Careem Pay offers a digital wallet
that stores real money for customers
in the UAE as well as a peer-to-peer
(P2P) transfer product that enables
customers to send, request, and receive
money using just a phone number,
personal QR code, or personal payment
link. Seamless access to international
remittance services will round out
Careem Pay’s payment offering for
customers and Captains to address
their everyday financial needs.
Mudassir Sheikha commented on the
same “We’re thrilled to acquire the
assets of Denarii, a startup that is
transforming the way people move
money across the world. Denarii’s
innovative API will accelerate our
journey to offering simple and
affordable international remittance
services, adding to the wide variety
of services already available through
Careem Pay.”
Mudassir believes there is a $2.8 trillion
sized market in the Middle East for the
company to tap into.
During one of his interviews, the CEO
said consumer payments, financial
services, and international transfers are
three areas Careem can develop.
He said that Saudi Arabia and the UAE
are the two largest markets in this
regard.
Careem will launch smartphone
services in the UAE first then in Saudi
Arabia, the largest and most strategic
market for the company, Sheikha
said, adding: “What we apply in the
UAE, we must adjust it to match the
requirements of the Saudi market.
We have partners, merchants, and
customers in Saudi Arabia, and we
can implement solutions that facilitate
matters for all these groups.”
54 www.thefinanceworld.com August 2022

Currently serving millions of consumers around the Middle East, the
Careem app’s food offering is expanding quickly. According to Mudassir
Sheikha (above), CEO and Co-Founder of Careem, by purchasing Munch:
On, Careem Food will be able to construct an even more competitive
offering with a far deeper variety of benefits for both restaurant partners
and customers.
Talking about the company’s
presence in Egypt, Morocco, and
Pakistan, Sheikha said that despite
the population is extremely high in
those countries, the percentage of
people who have bank accounts is
exceptionally low.
The challenge in these countries is how
to simplify things, including simplifying
transfers, for example, and how to
make it easier for small businesses to
receive payments for their services, he
said.
Careem’s CEO stressed that the
company is not competing with
banks, on the contrary, it looks for
partnerships with banks and fintechs
in developing and facilitating digital
payments and increasing their spread
at the expense of using cash.
Cross-border transfers are part of
the company’s future, allowing its
customers to use the funds placed
within the Careem wallet on the
application and transfer them
appropriately and at the lowest
possible cost to their families, he
explained.
Recovery from the pandemic
Careem’s business exceeded prepandemic
levels in some countries,
most notably the UAE, driven by a list
of services provided by the company.
The picture differs from one country to
another, and the company is rushing to
recover in all markets.
“In the UAE, we have a complete
basket of products within the umbrella
of the comprehensive Careem
application or the SUPER APP, which
includes 12 services, including car
rental, food delivery, grocery products,
and taxis,” he explained.
The pandemic came as a deep hit to the
company but could quickly diversify
its business and its merging as a ‘Super
App’ could do many more things than
just ride-hailing.
August 2022 www.thefinanceworld.com 55

Digital Assets
Are NFTs the next revenue generation
stream?
While there are potentially competing visions for how the metaverse will function, this much
seems to hold that it’s viewed as the next major evolution of the Internet, shifting from the
text-driven websites and oft-closed ecosystems of today into shared, overlapping 3D spaces in
which users interact via avatars.
Proponents believe that the
metaverse will be used for
a wide array of things, from
socializing to events, gaming,
shopping, and even work.
The metaverse won’t be one
site or platform, but rather an array of
online destinations that will support
customizable avatars and assets that
you can move from one virtual place to
another.
That last element could rely on
NFTs and blockchain technology. Nonfungible
tokens are digital assets with
programmed scarcity, and as such an
ideal tool to represent ownership of
virtual assets like in-metaverse items
or plots of virtual land. Popular NFTs
like the Bored Ape Yacht Club and
CryptoPunks could be transformed
into 3D avatars that owners can bring
into metaverse worlds, for example.
These virtual assets can also be traded,
customized, and even monetized.
Enter Web3
Web3 is a term coined to represent
the third, natural iteration of the
internet after the World Wide Web
(aka Web 2.0). Although there’s a
lot of controversy on what exactly
Web3 entails, it is quite simple. Web3
represents an open, 3D-immersive
internet. Built on top of the blockchain,
Web3 applications, augmented by
decentralized products and NFTs, are
ushering in a new era of how we all
connect, interact, work and play—all
within a transparent, open ecosystem.
The metaverse concept, recently
publicized by Facebook’s rebranding
as Meta, will revolutionize how we
interact with the world. Facebook’s
CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, stated that
“the next generation of the internet
is metaverse” and that existing social
media will come under the umbrella
of this new wave. He describes the
56 www.thefinanceworld.com August 2022

metaverse as “a virtual environment
where you can present yourself with
people in digital spaces. You can kind
of think of this as an embodied Internet
that you’re inside of, rather than just
looking at.”
How does the NFT marketplace
function?
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are data
units associated with unique digital
files. These files can be anything,
but more commonly, they’re pieces
of art, music, or recordings of live
performances.
In response to the tremendous
expansion, both individuals and
enterprises have started energetically
exploring ways to get the most out
of the NFT world. On this basis, to
effectively interact with each other
and have many options at hand, both
buyers and sellers find a partnership
with a third-party platform to be more
feasible in terms of costs, access to
a more extensive customer portfolio,
and extra services such as marketing,
legal, and technical assistance. These
platforms utilize blockchain technology
to affirm the origin of digital content
and ensure that the existing asset is not
a replication.
Large NFT marketplaces are
divided into streamlined and
augmented platforms. The streamlined
marketplaces support a broader
spectrum of NFTs, manage both
auctions and fixed-price sales, and
enable transactions with credit cards
and crypto payments in Bitcoin,
Ethereum, and other specific tokens.
Augmented marketplaces, in turn,
focus on more limited niches and
provide multiple supplementary
services such as minting (creating the
NFT itself), marketing, supervision,
pricing suggestions, and others.
How fintech institutions can make
use of NFTs?
NFTs have already had a significant
influence on the crypto space. Within
the financial context, with enormous
transformative as well as fusing
potential, NFTs are likely to merge with
other blockchain applications to form
an entirely new financial infrastructure.
The first thing that may come to
one’s mind regarding NFTs is the
One of the most exciting
ideas is to use NFTs
as collateral to earn
interest or get loans.
This means that now
anyone would be able
to supply an NFT
representing a piece of
art, digital land, or even
tokenized real estate as
collateral and borrow
money against it.
interconnection with decentralized
finance (DeFi). DeFi is a fast-growing
financial system based on blockchain
technology designed to remove the
control of banks and institutions on
money, financial products, and financial
services.
Initially, NFTs and DeFi were
launched as different applications, but
over time, it became clear that NFTs
could become a suitable instrument for
DeFi.
Despite several challenges to
overcome and some aspects to
streamline, many experts have already
defined the ways fintech players may
use tokens in their favor.
NFT as Collateral
One of the most exciting ideas is to
use NFTs as collateral to earn interest
or get loans. This means that now
anyone would be able to supply an
NFT representing a piece of art, digital
land, or even tokenized real estate as
collateral and borrow money against it.
Besides being used as collateral,
NFTs can also represent more complex
August 2022 www.thefinanceworld.com 57

Digital Assets
Non-fungible tokens have
risen in price in many
collections and have returned
to the public attention, hitting
$25 billion in sales in 2021.
As virtual reality evolves and
blockchain becomes more
widespread, projects like
the Metaverse will soon take
on a new shape, supported
by various NFT projects.
However, the bond market is
an important missing factor in
the NFT ecosystem.
financial products such as insurance,
bonds, or options. For example, each
insurance contract can be represented
as an NFT that can, in turn, be traded
on a secondary market.
Non-fungible tokens have risen in
price in many collections and have
returned to the public attention,
hitting $25 billion in sales in 2021. As
virtual reality evolves and blockchain
becomes more widespread, projects
like the Metaverse will soon take on a
new shape, supported by various NFT
projects. However, the bond market is
an important missing factor in the NFT
ecosystem. Most NFT users use their
NFTs only when playing certain games
or interacting with certain platforms.
Unlike alternative cryptocurrencies,
you cannot stake all NFTs. However,
various marketplaces for NFT-backed
loans allow borrowers to put up assets
for loans, while lenders can make
offers to lend in return for interest.
How can banks profit?
Many NFTs on the market are
relatively illiquid, and various
decentralized finance studies have
detected a rising need to increase NFT
liquidity, creating an opportunity for
banks and on the other hand presenting
new opportunities for collectors to
leverage their NFTs beyond the passive
buy-and-hold option.
Since NFTs have different prices
and people are willing to pay different
amounts for the same thing, the price
determination is not easy. To determine
the fair value of NFTs, banks could
establish a marketplace where NFT
owners mortgage their NFT pieces or
collections in exchange for crypto or
fiat currencies.
Once both parties agree on the terms,
the NFT would be deposited from
the borrower’s wallet into an escrow
account managed by the bank, and
the loan could be facilitated through a
smart contract. By providing a secure
marketplace for NFT owners and
utilizing their NFTs as collateral, banks
could support collectors and investors
in a variety of ways, including boosting
liquidity and supporting fair pricing for
NFTs, thus increasing portfolio variety,
and opening a new market of NFTs.
This allows banks to benefit from
decentralized ledger technology
(DLT) while also increasing their
top and bottom lines by introducing
a new product category, namely,
collateralizing digital assets and
profiting from the spread and
transaction fees. Introducing NFT use
cases will also help the bank stay ahead
of fintechs and other competitors while
additionally helping develop their
business strategy.
58 www.thefinanceworld.com August 2022

Healthcare
Healthcare Finance Management in UAE
Healthcare finance management in Dubai and Abu Dhabi has changed over the last
few years. With this, the healthcare sector has undergone huge changes from the
time when a doctor used to visit a patient’s house at his own expense to pain relief
centers that have been established for patients who have been receiving treatment
from a doctor outside the hospital.
UAE is a country with a huge
population of more than 27
million people and most of
the population is living in
urban areas. This means that
the healthcare services providers
have to deal with lots of patients,
which requires good education among
the primary and secondary school
students, who will be serving as
healthcare providers in the UAE. The
financial complexities of this mission,
especially within an emerging economy
make it all the more challenging for
health care proficiencies to be gained
within a short period. Therefore, a
lot of time, awareness, and special
attention need to be given to improving
healthcare finance management
in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, before
implementing any measure such as free
medical kit distribution or free mobile
medical setup program.
UAE has great natural resources and
has adequate expertise and resources
to deal with all the diseases known to
man. Hence, it is the responsibility of
every citizen of the UAE to get himself
or she treated properly to avoid the
spread of endemic diseases. If the free
medical kit distribution program can be
implemented successfully, then there
will be less number of people with
communicable diseases, which results
in overall improved quality of life in
the UAE. This will be an effective tool
for creating awareness among young
children who are likely to use mobile
phones as a means of entertainment.
Moreover, this could also help patients
and their families by reducing financial
hardships, which may occur during
hospital visits.
Methods of Payment for Health
Providers in Dubai and Abu Dhabi:
● In the United Arab Emirates, patients
are generally not required to pay a fee
for their medical services. However, if
they have insurance or other funding
that covers their expenses, they may
be required to pay a small portion of
their bill. Patients who do not have
insurance but have sufficient funds can
choose between paying cash and using
credit cards.
● In Dubai, all private clinics must
accept cash payments from patients.
The payment method must be stated
on the clinic’s website and in any
advertisements for the clinic. Private
clinics may also require that patients
pay for their services with a card that
can be used at any point of sale in the
UAE.
● Any public hospital in Dubai will
August 2022 www.thefinanceworld.com 59

Healthcare
accept cash payments from patients
daily. Public hospitals do not require
patients to show an identification
document, but they do ask for your
address and contact number so that
you can be contacted if necessary
during your stay. Public hospitals also
ask questions about whether you have
insurance or another funding source
that covers your expenses during your
stay at the hospital. If you do not have
insurance or another funding source
available, then you should expect to
pay a small portion of your bill through
cash payment.
● Dubai has recently introduced
several new methods of payment for
health providers, including a cashless
system, e-payment, and payments
through banks. This paper will examine
each method and discuss its benefits
and drawbacks.
● E-payment: The Dubai government
has introduced an e-payment system
that allows patients to pay their bills
online or at one of the city’s many ATM
kiosks. Patients can pay using credit
or debit cards or by using their bank
account information. The system also
allows patients to set up automatic
payments so they don’t have to
remember to make payments on time
each month. The e-payment system is
currently available only at seven clinics
in the city center; however, plans are
The Dubai Health
Authority (DHA)
and Abu Dhabi
Health Services
Company (ADHSC)
have set up a joint
committee to discuss
the introduction of
electronic medical
records (EMR) in
hospitals.
The UAE’s healthcare system ranks among the best
in the world due to its low cost and availability.
According to a report by the World Health
Organization (WHO), health care systems around the
world spend about $4 trillion annually on health care
for their citizens
underway to expand these services
across the country.
How the funds are collected?
The Health Providers in Dubai and
Abu Dhabi are required to collect funds
from their patients, who are citizens
of the UAE. The funds are collected
through various methods such as
cash, cheques, and credit/debit card
payments.
They use bank accounts to collect
funds from their patients, as well as
those who use cash only. The Health
Providers also have other sources of
income like private practice and other
sources of income that help them
in providing better services to the
patients.
Health providers in Dubai and Abu
Dhabi were introduced to the concept
of prepaid health insurance for the first
time by the government. The funds
collected for health providers will be
used for the development of health
infrastructure and services. In this
regard, it is worth mentioning that the
government has established a scheme
to support the healthcare sector.
The scheme is implemented
through different mechanisms such as
subsidized health insurance schemes
and incentives for specialists and
hospital visits. The scheme aims to
improve access to quality healthcare
services by providing financial
support to those who cannot afford
it. It also seeks to reduce budgetary
constraints on healthcare authorities
and encourage them to focus more on
providing quality care at affordable
prices.
The current trend in health care
involves people paying less attention
to their health and focusing more on
their work-related stress or family
responsibilities. They choose not
to visit doctors for minor ailments
because it may cause those financial
losses or inconvenience. Therefore,
we must provide them with adequate
facilities where they can get treatment
without any hassle or cost attached
to it. We need to ensure that our
population has access to quality
medical care without any barriers like
cost or language barriers etc.
Allocation of funds for Health
Providers in Dubai and Abu Dhabi
The UAE’s healthcare system
ranks among the best in the world
due to its low cost and availability.
According to a report by the World
Health Organization (WHO), health
care systems around the world spend
about $4 trillion annually on health
care for their citizens. In comparison,
Abu Dhabi spends only about $10
million per year on health care for its
residents – a fraction of what many
other countries spend on providing this
same service to their people.
The UAE’s low cost of living makes
it possible for residents to afford basic
medical needs such as doctor visits
and medication for illnesses or injuries
without having to worry about financial
hardship.
The Government of Dubai and
the Government of Abu Dhabi have
allocated a total of AED 15 billion
to support health providers and
service providers in the emirates. The
allocation has been divided into three
categories, with each category having
its required level of funding.
The first category is for primary care
physicians, who will receive a total of
AED 2 billion. This means that they
will receive AED 2 million per year for
their services. The second category
is for stand-alone clinics, which can
have their staff or contracts with other
60 www.thefinanceworld.com August 2022

healthcare facilities. They will be given
a total of AED 3 billion, which means
that they will receive an additional
amount equivalent to about 1% of their
revenue each year. The third category
is for hospitals and large healthcare
facilities, which will receive a total of
AED 20 billion. This means that they
can have their staff or contracts with
other healthcare facilities as well as
make use of private practice physicians
when needed.
Hospital’s eligibility criteria for
Health Providers in Dubai and Abu
Dhabi
The move comes after the health
authorities, in collaboration with the
World Bank (WB), launched an EMR
pilot project earlier this month.
The DHA said it has already started
implementing EMR in all government
hospitals across Dubai and will extend
it to other public hospitals soon.
“The implementation of the
EMR system is one of the WB’s key
recommendations for improving health
care delivery in developing countries,”
it said. “It aims to enhance efficiency
through improved data quality and
usage, reduced costs, improved
patient safety, and increased citizen
satisfaction.”
Here, we present the eligibility
criteria for Health Providers in Dubai
and Abu Dhabi, according to their
respective laws.
Dubai:
To be eligible for employment
in a hospital, the applicant must
have completed at least S1 level
or equivalent from an accredited
The UAE’s healthcare
system ranks among
the best in the world
due to its low cost
and availability.
educational institution with a
minimum of 30% marks in aggregate.
The applicant must also have
attained the age limit and have no
criminal record.
Abu Dhabi:
The applicant must have completed
at least S1 level or equivalent from
an accredited educational institution
with a minimum of 30% marks in
aggregate. The applicant must also
have attained the age limit and have
no criminal record.
1. Health provider is not a subsidiary
of any other organization or entity.
2. The health provider must have
been in existence for at least
three years.
3. The health provider must have at
least one doctor and two nurses
on staff.
4. The health provider must have
an average of 15 patients per day
(including walk-ins).
5. The health provider must have
been licensed by the Ministry of
Health.
August 2022 www.thefinanceworld.com 61

Corporate Results
Zain Group result H1-22
Net profit: KD50 million
Zain Group, based in Kuwait,
reported KD50 million ($165 million)
in net profits in the first half of 2022,
representing a 22 percent year-on-year
increase, according to a statement. The
financial results come as the telecom
provider increases its investments in
4G and 5G network upgrades, as well
as its aggressive approach to exiting
the telecom space. Customers on
the company’s 5G network in Kuwait
increased by 9%, increasing profits.
Sharjah Islamic Bank result
H1-22
Net Profit: AED 361.87m of
25% (YoY)
Net Income: AED 587.30
million
Sharjah Islamic Bank (SIB) recorded
a 25% year-on-year (YoY) rise in its net
profits attributable to the shareholders
to AED 361.87 million in the first half
(H1) of 2022 from AED 289.49 million,
according to the bank’s consolidated
interim financials for the six months
ended on 30 June 2022. The bank’s net
income from financing and investment
products reached AED 587.30 million
in H1-22, up from AED 538.01 million in
the year-ago period. The bank’s assets
reached AED 56.06 billion as of 30 June
2022, up from AED 54.95 billion as of
31 December 2021.
DMCC result H1-22
New Companies: 1,469
The Dubai Multi Commodities Centre
(DMCC) has had its best first-half
performance since its inception in
2002. In the first six months of 2022,
DMCC registered a record 1,469 new
companies, a 19% increase over the
same period last year. According to
the flagship free zone, the growth was
driven by strong commodities trade
and continued interest in the DMCC
Crypto Centre, as well as the ease
of setting up and doing business at
DMCC.
Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank
result H1-22
Net Profit: Dhs1.4bn
Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) has
announced a 30 percent year-on-year
(YoY) increase in net profit for H1 2022,
reaching Dhs1.4bn from Dhs1.1bn in
the same period last year. The bank’s
revenue increased by 7% to Dhs2.8
billion, up from Dhs2.6 billion the
previous year. This was due to an 11%
year-on-year increase in non-funded
income to Dhs1.69bn, driven by a 26%
increase in fees and commissions,
and a 5% increase in funded income
to Dhs1.66bn, driven by increased
customer financing.
Aldrees Petroleum and Transport Services Company result
H1-22
Net Profit: SAR 108.30 million
Net Revenue: SAR 5.76 billion by 46.65%
Aldrees Petroleum and Transport Services Company reported net profits after
Zakat and tax of SAR 108.30 million in the first half (H1) of 2022, a 43.82 percent
increase from SAR 75.30 million the previous year. According to the interim
financial results, revenue increased by 46.65% to SAR 5.76 billion in H1-22 from
SAR 3.93 billion in H1-21. Earnings per share (EPS) were SAR 1.44 in the first six
months (6M) of 2022, compared to SAR 1 the previous year.
National Bank of Umm Al
Qaiwain result H1-22
Net Profits: 25.70% (YoY) to AED
165.29 million
The National Bank of Umm Al Qaiwain’s
(NBQ) net profits increased by 25.70% year
over year (YoY) to AED 165.29 million in the
first six months (6M) of 2022 from AED 131.48
million, according to the bank’s unaudited
consolidated financials for the six months
ending on June 30, 2022. In the first half (H1)
of 2022, the bank’s net interest income and
income from Islamic products were AED
148.94 million, up from AED 140.28 million in
the corresponding period of 2021.
62 www.thefinanceworld.com August 2022

Masraf Al Rayan result
H1-22
Net Profit: $357 million
Masraf Al Rayan, a Qatar-based
lender, has made an H1-2022 net of 1.03
billion Qatari riyals ($357 million), a
10% decrease from QAR 1.14 billion in
the previous year. Earnings per share
(EPS) was QAR 0.110, compared to
QAR 0.152 in the same period in 2021.
Net operating profit increased by
21% year on year to QAR2.2 billion,
according to a statement on the Qatar
Stock Exchange.
Qatar Islamic Bank result
H1-22
Net Profit: QAR1.815 billion
by 13.8%
Shariah-compliant lender Qatar
Islamic Bank posted a 13.8% yearon-year
rise in net profit during the
first half of 2022. Total net profit
attributable to shareholders for the six
months ended June 30, 2022, reached
QAR1.815 billion ($498.5 million). Total
assets also went up by 4.8% to QAR193
billion, supported by an increase in
investing activities. Customer deposits
at the listed bank now stand at QAR129
billion, up by 3.2% compared to a year
earlier, while total income grew 4.2% to
QAR4.112 billion.
Arada result H1-22
Net Sales: AED1.49 billion
Arada sold residential properties
worth AED1.49 billion ($405.6 million)
in the first half of 2022, a 30% increase
over the same period last year. The
developer’s two Sharjah megaprojects,
Aljada and Masaar, accounted for most
home sales during the specified time.
Arada’s first-half results capped off a
particularly strong period that included
credit ratings and the successful
completion of the company’s first
public financing transaction, a $350
million Sukuk issuance.
National Bank of Kuwait
result H1-22
Net Profits: KD 237.8
million by 47.9%
National Bank of Kuwait (NBK)has
announced its financial results for
the six months ended 30 June 2022.
The Bank reported a net profit of KD
237.8 million (USD 775.4 million),
compared to KD 160.8 million (USD
524.2 million) for the same period
in 2021, improving by 47.9% year-onyear.
Net profit for the three months
ended 30 June 2022 reached KD 121.2
million (USD 395.3 million), a yearon-year
increase of 58.6% from the
comparable period in 2021.
Egyptian Gulf Bank result
H1-22
Net Profit: EGP 409.46m by
23% (YoY)
The Egyptian Gulf Bank (EG Bank)
recorded a 23% year-on-year (YoY)
increase in its standalone net profits
to EGP 409.46 million in the first
half (H1) of 2022 from EGP 333.95
million, according to the bank’s initial
financials. The bank’s interest income
rose by 4% to around EGP 3.83 billion
in H1-22, compared to EGP 3.67 billion
in the year-ago period.
Du result Q2- 22
Net Profit: Dh303 million by
26.2%
Net Revenue: Dh3.14 billion
The Dubai-based Emirates Integrated
Telecommunications Company, often
known as du, announced a 26.2%
increase in net profit for the second
quarter of 2022. In the three months
leading up to June, the company’s
net profit increased to Dh303 million
($82.5 million). Revenue rose by
about 10 percent to Dh3.14 billion,
while earnings before interest, taxes,
depreciation, and amortisation grew
more than 12.1 percent to Dh1.27bn
due to a sharp increase in service
revenue and gross margin expansion.
Mashreq Bank result H1-22
Net Profit: Dhs1.4bn
The bank’s operating income in H1
2022 increased by 15 per cent over
2021 to Dhs3.3bn, primarily due to
increased net interest income and
income from Islamic financing. Its
non-interest income to operating
income ratio continues to remain
high at 44.2 percent (47.5 percent
as of December 2021). The bank’s
operating profit at Dhs1.9bn is a
17 percent increase compared to
the corresponding period in 2021,
because of higher operating income.
The net profit posted was a healthy
Dhs1.4bn.
National Marine Dredging
Company result H1-22
Net Profits: Dhs403m by 74.4%
Net Revenue: Dhs3.546m by
8.5%
National Marine Dredging Company
Group has reported net profit growth
of 74.4 percent, reaching Dhs403m in
H1 2022, compared to its net profit of
Dhs231m during the same period in 2021.
The group’s revenue increased by 8.5
percent to Dhs3.546m compared to its
revenue of Dhs3.269m in the first half of
2021. The total assets of the group are now
at Dhs13.32bn, a growth of 3 percent over
the total assets in 2021 at Dhs12.92bn.
August 2022 www.thefinanceworld.com 63

Stock Market
Union Coop Lists its shares on DFM
Union Coop, an Emiratis
supermarket chain
announced its intention to
list its shares on Dubai Financial
Market (DFM) on July 18th, making
it the first corporative to make
a breakthrough in the UAE. The
listing is the Securities Trading
Commission’s strategy to expand
the size of the Emirate stock market
competitiveness and Initial Public
Offering (IPO). The union coop
also announced that it will suspend
trading of stocks via the portal on
July 1st and resume DFM by
July 18th.
Union said it will carry out a stock
split according to the 10:1 equation
and that each member of the union
coop would receive 10 shares of each
share it currently owns.
The listing is part of the securities
and Exchange High Commission’s
strategy to expand the market in the
Emirates to 3 trillion AED ($816.6
billion).
Khalid al- Falasi, CEO of
the Union Coop, said this step
represents a key milestone in the
Coop’s development journey, as
it provides its members with an
efficient, regulated, and transparent
marketplace for the trading of their
shares.
“It also enables us, as a listed
Union Coop, to leverage the
numerous benefits of capital markets
to implement our growth strategy
and provide our members with the
DFM innovative services, such as the
seamless cash dividend distribution.”
CEO of DFM and Nasdaq Dubai
Hameed Ali said the imminent listing
underlines the joint efforts between
the DFM and various economic
sectors in Dubai to accelerate the
implementation of the emirate’s
strategy to develop its financial
markets.
Tecom Group commences trading on DFM
An overall of 625,000,000 shares,
equal to 12.5 in line with cent
of Tecom Group’s issued
percentage capital, have been issued.
Tecom Group has correctly indexed
at the Dubai Financial Market (DFM),
starting its first day of buying and
selling on July 5th below the price tag
symbol ‘Tecom’.
The group raised approximately
1.7 billion dirhams through an Initial
Public Offering (IPO). The final offer
price of the Global Offering was $
2.67 per share, and we listed 625
million shares (625,000,000 shares) of
common stock, which is 12.5% of the
outstanding share capital.
Global offerings meet great
demand, with overall over
subscription of just over 21x, and
UAE retail offerings overall are a
significant multiple of nearly 40x
oversubscription, surpassing DFM’s
previous IPOs.
Malek Al Malek, Chairman of
the Tecom Group, rang the market
opening bell at the official listing
ceremony in the presence of Dubai
Holding Group CEO Amit Kaushal,
Tecom Group CEO Abdulla Belhoul,
and CEO Hameed Ali of DFM and
other officials of Nasdaq Dubai.
“The Tecom Group’s listing on DFM is a
milestone for Dubai and a historic moment
for the company. As a public company,
the Tecom Group provides investors with
key players in Dubai’s business hub and
Dubai’s market opportunities. We offer the
opportunity to benefit from companies that
are well suited to leverage the fascinating
underlying macroeconomic, “said Malek Al
Malek, Chairman of the Tecom Group.
64 www.thefinanceworld.com August 2022

Nasdaq Dubai welcomes $3 billion worth US
government bonds
Nasdaq Dubai welcomed
the listing of two tranches
of US dollar-denominated
government bonds issued by the
federal government of the United
Arab Emirates through the Ministry
of Finance.
With total transactions reaching
$ 15 billion (10 times the initial
benchmark target of $ 1.5 billion),
issuance meets strong investor
demand, and the ministry has
doubled the US dollar by increasing
the size of issuance to $ 3 billion.
The re-listing brings the total
value of UAE US $ denominated
bonds listed on NASDAQ Dubai to the
US $ 7 billion.
The new listing by the United
Arab Emirates government,
represented by the Ministry of
Finance, includes a $ 1.75 billion
10-year tranche with a 4.050 percent
coupon and a $ 1.25 billion 30-year
Formosa tranche with a 4.95 percent
coupon.
Nasdaq Dubai welcomes ICBC
Nasdaq Dubai today welcomed
the listing of a groundbreaking
five-tranche carbon
neutral bond totaling $ 2.68 billion by
the Industrial and Commercial Bank
of China (ICBC), the world’s largest
bank of assets. These five tranche
notes were issued by the ICBC offices
in DIFC, Hong Kong, London, and
Singapore.
The new issuance brings the
total value of ICBC bonds listed on
NASDAQ Dubai to the US $ 4,375
million.
The ICBC Dubai Branch (DIFC)
was responsible for the CNHdenominated
tranche for multicurrency
issues, raising the price
of the CNH-2B notebook for two
years to 3.20%. This bond is the first
carbon-neutral bond issued in the
GCC region and the largest CNHdenominated
bond issued within
the ICBC Group. The note was well
received by investors, the final
price was raised by 55 basis points
compared to the original guidance,
and the purchase order was over 14
billion yuan when the final guidance
was announced.
Other tranches include three-year
€ 300 million bonds 1.625%, two-year
HK $ 2 billion bonds 2.95%, three-year
US $ 1.2 billion bonds 2.95%, and $
600 million three-year floating rate
bonds were included.
To celebrate the listing, Dubai
Consul General of the People’s
Republic of China, Lee Xuhang, is
General Manager of the ICBC Dubai
Branch (DIFC), Chang Junguo,
Nasdaq Dubai, and Dubai Financial
Market (DFM)
With the new issuance, ICBC’s
bonds listed on Nasdaq Dubai total
the US $ 4,375 million, making
ICBC the largest Chinese issuer on
the exchange. The issuance, which
was listed on Nasdaq Dubai on
June 2, 2022, strengthened Dubai’s
leading position as a dynamic global
capital markets hub, bringing the
total amount of bonds listed on the
exchange to US $ 111.5 billion.
August 2022 www.thefinanceworld.com 65

Travel
Aviation industry’s upcoming contribution
to UAE economy
UAE welcomed its first passengers to commuting via flights during the early 1960s and since then
it has come a long way in 2022. The development of the aviation industry has been quite radical
with the increase in the manner of connectivity and with the pandemic the sector has undergone
major modifications. Currently, it is aiming at becoming and growing the most sustainable and
technology-driven sectors in the whole world.
With the initiation of air
transport, it was not
adding much value to the
government’s revenue system
as it is initially just a sand compacted
runaway. But the major transformation
was witnessed at the beginning of 1985
with Emirates airlines with two wetleased
aircraft that modified the nation
from a pearl diving spot to a global
hub for air transport. This marked the
globalization of the UAE with respect
to the aviation industry as it started
operating between 240 destinations and
became the world’s largest long-haul
spot.
Its imminent growth was
contributed by the fact that UAE is
located at a strategic distance between
Europe and Asia and therefore has seen
the greatest number of international
passengers as it developed into a
center for transcontinental traffic
between America and Europe on
one side and with Asia on the other.
Along with tourism and oil drilling,
the aviation industry has also been a
driving force for UAE’s economy as it
goes on to contribute over 13% to the
National Gross Domestic Product. This
also permits the boost in other related
sectors such as hospitality, tourism,
logistics, finance, and EXIM trade.
A report by the Chief Economist
at Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank,
Monica Malik, has stated that “The
aviation sector has been an essential
factor behind the transformation of
the UAE economy since the 1980s and
its development into a regional and
then global service hub.” UAE has
already spent billions on developing
new attractions and easing the visa
regulations to enable both skilled and
non-skilled workers to contribute
to their economy. In the near future,
their forward-looking strategy looks
like they focus on becoming part of
the aerospace supply chain, rather
than only a customer of billion-dollar
aircraft orders placed with the world’s
66 www.thefinanceworld.com August 2022

The aviation industry in the UAE has already been quite primal as
it supports over 8,00,000 jobs and contributes over $47.4 billion
to the economy. With its steep progress and continued brilliance,
the UAE’s aviation market is expected to grow 170% by 2037 while
supporting over 1.4 million jobs and contributing more than $128
billion in GDP to the economy.
biggest plane makers.
In the latest study released by
the International Air Transport
Association, it highlighted the key
relevance of air transport to the UAE
which revealed that the ongoing
prioritization of aviation as a pivotal
strategical asset would thereupon
generate an additional 6,20,000 jobs
along with almost over $80 billion in
GDP for the nation’s economy by 2037.
At present, the aviation industry in the
UAE has already been quite primal
as it supports over 8,00,000 jobs and
contributes over $47.4 billion to the
economy. With its steep progress and
continued brilliance, the UAE’s aviation
market is expected to grow 170% by
2037 while supporting over 1.4 million
jobs and contributing more than $128
billion in GDP to the economy.
The government also plans on
investing more widely into smart
transport such as the DP World-backed
Virgin Hyperloop high-tech travel
system will carry passengers and
freight via floating pods in vacuum
tubes at speeds of more than 1,000kph.
Their current focus is on recouping
from the aftermath of the pandemic
as it will help accelerate the country’s
continuing economic recovery from the
Covid-19 pandemic as it brings in more
tourists, investors, and workers.
Ms. Malik further purported that
“Going forward, the focus will likely
be on working with their partners
towards a greener and more fuelefficient
aviation sector.” Also, there
always has been a pressing inclination
toward going green, and achieving
environmental sustainability has been
a top priority for local airlines such
as Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways, which
announced its target of net-zero carbon
by 2050.
Etihad, which has been focused on
its fleet of GenX-powered Boeing 787’s
under its Greenliner Sustainability
programme, focuses on including the
Rolls-Royce XWB-powered Airbus
A350 fleet. While the face of the
UAE’s aviation industry has changed
dramatically over the past 50 years,
the coming decades promise more
developments in sustainability,
technology, and business models to
keep up with the changes in air travel.
The authorities are more aligned
towards formulating new technologies,
and innovative business models
that will eventually emerge, airports
and ground handling to be fully
automated, travel would be seamless
and more enjoyable, aircraft will be
green, with completely different seat
configurations and experiences, new
emerging start-ups will appear to
control travel end-to-end with hypercustomization
of offers using the
power of predictive analytics.
The aviation industry has surely
come a long way in UAE since its
inception during the late 1960s and
with the progress and implementation,
it surely will contribute more not only
to the commuters but also to the nation
and its economy as well.
August 2022 www.thefinanceworld.com 67

Local News
DEWA to spend
Dhs40 billion
on projects
in next 5 years
The Dubai Electricity and Water
Authority (DEWA) intends
to spend Dhs 40 billion on
major projects over the following
five years. It also involves financial
contributions to the growth of clean
and renewable energy initiatives. Saeed
Mohammed Al Tayer, MD, and CEO
said DEWA intends to invest about
Dhs16bn to strengthen and expand
electricity and water transmission
and distribution networks and about
Dhs12bn to complete the independent
power producer (IPP) projects in the
Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum
Solar Park, the Hassyan Power
Complex and the Independent Water
Producer (IWP) projects at Hassyan.
Dubai Airport announces new
24/7 customer centre
Dubai International (DXB)
announces the opening of
a new customer contact
center that offers “always-on”
access to DXB customer support
representatives whenever, wherever,
and on their preferred channel. The
contact centre includes 24/7 bilingual
support as well as the most updated
and consistent information across
all channels, including automated
flight status checks without having
to speak to an agent. DXB recorded
13.6 million passengers in Q1 2022,
marking its busiest quarter since
2020.
Dubai’s Crown Prince announces
new metaverse strategy
The Dubai Metaverse Strategy
was introduced by Sheikh
Hamdan bin Mohammed bin
Rashid Al Maktoum, the Crown
Prince of Dubai and head of the
Dubai Executive Council. “We
launched the Dubai Metaverse
Strategy today, which aims to foster
innovation in new technology. Dubai
is home to over 1,000 companies
operating in the metaverse and
blockchain sectors, which contribute
$500m to our national economy,”
Sheikh Hamdan said the committee
had started work on key pillars and
the objectives of the Dubai Metaverse
Strategy at the time.
Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer,
MD, and CEO of DEWA
68 www.thefinanceworld.com August 2022

Saeed Al Maktoum appointed as chairman and
Reem Al Hashimy as CEO of Expo City
Sheikh Ahmed bin
Saeed Al Maktoum
has been named
chairman and Reem Al
Hashimy has been named
CEO of the Expo City
Dubai Authority by Sheikh
Mohammed bin Rashid Al
Maktoum, Vice President
and Prime Minister of the
United Arab Emirates and
Ruler of Dubai. On June
20, Sheikh Mohammed
announced the opening
of Expo City Dubai.
Transforming the expo
site into a new city,
Expo City Dubai will be
a smart destination for
businesses, driven by
sustainability, innovation,
education, and
entertainment. It is set to
open in October
this year.
Dubai is recognized as fifth-best
shipping hub in the world
Singapore retained its rank as
the top international maritime
hub for the ninth consecutive
year in 2022, according to the Xinhua-
Baltic International Shipping Centre
Development (ISCD) Index. The top
five international shipping centers
in 2022 are Singapore, London,
Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Dubai.
The value of global trade rose by
almost 15 percent to a record $7.7
trillion in the first quarter of 2022, an
increase of about $1tn compared with
the same period last year, according
to the UN Conference on Trade and
Development (Unctad).
Dubai maintains
its global tourist
FDI leadership
The new investments and projects
generated 5,545 new jobs during
the year, according to the Dubai
FDI Monitor report, published by the
Dubai Investment Development Agency
(Dubai FDI), an agency of the Dubai’s
Department of Economy and Tourism
(DET). Dubai’s tourism sector attracted
Dhs6.4bn ($1.7 billion) in FDI across 30
FDI projects in 2021. The value of total
FDI capital flows into all sectors in Dubai
exceeded Dhs26bn from 618 announced
FDI projects in 2021, with a growth rate
of 5.5 percent compared to 2020.
August 2022 www.thefinanceworld.com 69

Global News
ECB hikes interest rates in the struggle to control inflation
The ECB raised its benchmark
deposit rate by 50 basis points
to zero percent, breaking its
guidance for a 25-basis point
move, as it joined global peers in
jacking up borrowing costs. It was
the eurozone central bank’s first
rate hike for 11 years. Ending an
eight-year experiment with negative
interest rates, the ECB lifted its
main refinancing rate too, to 0.50%,
and promised more hikes possibly
as soon as its Sept. 8 meeting. The
euro climbed as much as 0.8% to
$1.0261, having traded at $1.0198
just before the statement but turned
negative on the day.
Twitter fast-tracks
lawsuit in October
against Elon Musk
Twitter expedites its lawsuit
against business magnate Elon
Musk over his abandoned $44
billion takeover of the social
media site. Musk backed out of the deal
to buy the platform on July 8, saying
in a regulatory filing that Twitter had
made “misleading representations”
over the number of bot accounts.
Twitter also hasn’t “complied with its
contractual obligations” to provide
information about how to assess how
prevalent the bots are on the social
media service, Musk said. Twitter
countered that Musk is asking for
information that “does not exist,
has already been provided, or is
the subject of requests only made
recently.” The billionaire “refuses to
honor his obligations to Twitter and
its stockholders because the deal he
signed no longer serves his interests,”
Twitter said in the suit.
Ranil
Wickremesinghe
as Sri Lanka’s new
president
Acting President and veteran
Sri Lanka politician Ranil
Wickremesinghe were elected
President of Sri Lanka by
Parliament Wednesday even as
protesters on the street vowed to
continue their Aragalaya (struggle)
and reiterated their demand for his
resignation, calling him an accomplice
of the discredited Rajapaksa regime.
Wickremesinghe will replace Gotabaya
Rajapaksa who fled the country and
resigned after public anger over
the country’s worst economic crisis
exploded.
Fed spikes up
rates second
time in a row
For the second consecutive
month, Federal Reserve officials
increased interest rates by 75
basis points, delivering the
most aggressive tightening in more
than a generation to combat rising
inflation, but with the risk of dealing
with a serious hit to the economy.
Policymakers, facing the hottest cost
pressures in 40 years, lifted the target
for the federal funds rate to a range
of 2.25% to 2.5%. With the most recent
increase, rates are now close to what
Fed policymakers consider neutral,
or the point at which the economy
is neither growing faster nor slower.
Rate increases were anticipated by
regulators to reach approximately 3.4
percent this year and 3.8 percent in
2023, according to forecasts from
mid-June.
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70 www.thefinanceworld.com August 2022