News

Dubai Roads & Transport Authority Introduces Smart Solutions

A range of innovative digital services now aid mobility and improve efficiency.

Published

3 years ago

September 26, 2023

dubai roads and transport authority introduces smart solutions

Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has introduced a range of smart technology solutions to automate services and make life easier and more convenient for citizens as the Emirate continues its digital transformation plan leading up to 2025.

Here are some of the services that have been improved using cutting-edge tech:

Smart Kiosks

Citizens can now renew vehicle registrations, pay parking fines, and recharge their nol cards 24/7 at 32 separate smart kiosks featuring biometric login. In total, 28 digital services are available, with payment options including cash, credit cards, and NFC digital wallets.

Taxi App

As well as an hourly rental service, residents and tourists can book taxis and limos 24 hours a day. The new Dubai Taxi Corporation app also features a “Lost and Found” section, along with location sharing, route details, and estimated arrival times.

nol Pay App

An updated version of the nol Pay app can now be used for transport fares, parking, tourist attractions, and even shopping. Instant balance top-ups are available, along with integration of digital IDs for simplified registration.

Driving Licenses

A “Click and Drive” initiative for obtaining driving licenses has digitized the entire admin process, reducing wait times by 75%. The new service even includes a mobile eye-testing facility.

Free Parking Permits

Parking permits are now available digitally and don’t need to be printed or displayed. The service allows users to add up to 5 vehicles, with each activated at a time through the RTA Dubai app.

Unified Booking

The RTA plans to streamline transport bookings and tickets over the next couple of years, unifying regulations across all providers, which currently includes the likes of Careem, Udrive, Uber, ekar, and Hala.

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

7 days 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.