News

Digital Tech Will Help Saudi Arabia Host 30 Million Pilgrims By 2030

For the last two decades, the Hajj pilgrimage has been typically attended by 2 to 3 millions of pilgrims.

Published

4 years ago

July 15, 2022

digital tech will help saudi arabia host 30 million pilgrims by 2030

This year’s Hajj pilgrimage was open to 1 million pilgrims from Saudi Arabia. By 2030, Saudi Arabia would like to host as many as 30 million pilgrims. To make this ambitious goal possible, the Kingdom is betting on digital technology.

One tech initiative that was launched by the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah earlier this year is Hajj Smart ID, a smart ID card with barcodes containing pilgrim’s personal information and documentation. The card frees pilgrims from having to carry official documents, and it also helps guide pilgrims to their residences, among other things.

Last year, Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) and Doyof Al Rahman Program (DARP) launched the Pilgrim’s Smart Bracelet (NUSK) project. The bracelet is intended to help organizers track pilgrim’s health information and vaccination records.

Tech initiatives like Hajj Smart ID and the smart bracelet project are guided by the Pilgrim Experience Program, a core component of Saudi Vision 2030. The program strives to give as many Muslims as possible the opportunity to perform Hajj and Umrah to the fullest extent while working on enhancing their experience.

Also Read: Cisco Unveils Strategic Vision For Enterprise Cloud Security In MENA

“These technological solutions can help attract more Muslims to the two holy mosques, ultimately achieving the Kingdom’s goals in the Saudi Vision 2030 to welcome millions of pilgrims and help them with high-quality services and enrich their experience in the kingdom,” said Amr Al-Madah, Deputy Minister of Hajj and Umrah.

For the last two decades, the Hajj pilgrimage has been typically attended by 2 to 3 millions of pilgrims. The last three years were exceptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, with the year 2020 seeing a record low attendance of just 1,000 pilgrims. It will be interesting to see how this new digital technology will be able to effectively handle almost 30x the amount of pilgrims by the end of the decade.

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

2 weeks 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.