News

Careem Is Officially Suspending Its Services In Lebanon

Careem customers who have outstanding Careem credit or REWARDS points are encouraged to use them before March 25, 2022.

Published

4 years ago

March 23, 2022

careem is officially suspending its services in lebanon

Recently, vehicle for hire company Careem has announced its decision to leave Lebanon due to the unfavorable economic situation in the country.

“Unfortunately, due to the current economic environment in the country, we deeply regret that we’ve had to make the difficult decision to suspend our services in Lebanon starting from March 25, 2022” said the Careem team in the official statement.

careem suspending services in lebanon official statement

Careem customers who have outstanding Careem credit or REWARDS points are encouraged to use them before March 25, 2022. If they don’t make the deadline, their remaining credit will be automatically refunded.

REWARDS points can be redeemed through the Careem app, by converting them to Emirates Skyward Miles or donating them to charity.

Careem was founded in 2012 as a service for corporate car bookings. The service gradually expanded to include personal ride-hailing and food delivery. In 2019, Careem was acquired by Uber for $3.1 billion, which made it the first unicorn startup company in the Middle East (not including Israeli unicorn startups).

Also Read: PayPal In Lebanon: Everything You Need To Know

During the first 10 months of 2021, Careem recorded 4.3 million rides, with 52 percent of its customers using the service to commute to work, and 46 percent using it for leisure trips.

It’s now clear that Careem’s success hasn’t been enough to offset the worsening economic situation in Lebanon. Since the start of the economic crisis, the Lebanese pound has lost more than 90 percent of its value, following a 58.1 percent contraction of Lebanon’s GDP between 2019 and 2021.

What’s more, the company has faced stiff competition from Bolt, which currently charges approximately the same as regular taxi drivers do for shorter trips. It’s tough to see yet another business leave Lebanon, but during times like this, there’s only one thing to say – yalla, bye!

News

Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon

Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.

Published

1 week ago

August 27, 2026

Dana Saadeh

visa's return to syria starts with a test and a bank in lebanon

Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.

The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.

Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc

— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026

“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.

Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.

Also Read: Lebanon’s 5G Era Begins With 150 Stations And A $1M Budget

The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.

Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.