News

Noon & ADIO To Build Huge Fulfillment Center In Abu Dhabi

The new facility at Khalifa Economic Zones, Abu Dhabi, will be the largest in the region when it opens in 2024.

Published

4 years ago

November 11, 2022

Nour Nasir

Noon

The COVID-19 pandemic massively accelerated the growth of online shopping in the UAE, with the market expected to be worth $9.2 billion by 2026. As eCommerce sales look set to double in volume, the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) and Dubai-based online marketplace Noon are teaming up to build the UAE’s biggest fulfillment center.

The 252,000 square meter mega facility will be sited in Abu Dhabi’s Khalifa Economic Zones, and ADIO is offering Noon monetary and non-monetary incentives to open the massive new warehouse.

“Noon’s partnerships with ADIO and KEZAD Group are significant in scale and impact, creating thousands of jobs and new opportunities for the private sector to plug into an e-commerce platform and the emirate’s innovation ecosystem. Leveraging Noon’s cutting-edge logistics, innovation, and technology expertise, the mega fulfillment center will reinforce Abu Dhabi’s emerging strength in e-commerce and logistics while boosting adjacent industries like transportation and warehousing,” says Abdulla Abdul Aziz Al Shamsi, acting director general at ADIO.

According to the latest press announcement, the new fulfillment center will allow rapid product delivery across the UAE marketplace, using the latest robotic and AI-based automation techniques for sorting, transfer, and storage. The high-tech facility will still need plenty of human workers, with more than 6,000 new staff positions expected to be created, including entry-level packing jobs up to managerial executives.

Also Read: Aramex Has Successfully Tested Drone Deliveries In Oman

“As a local technology company, it is our duty to innovate, invent, and provide the optimal infrastructure for a digital-first future. The new hub in the UAE will accelerate not only Noon’s growth but also eCommerce in our region. We are proud to collaborate with UAE industry leaders such as ADIO and KEZAD to provide our people and nation with the world-class tools necessary for success,” says Mohamed Alabbar, Founder of Noon.

With Noon’s expanded operations in Abu Dhabi, the emirate’s eCommerce sector is receiving a significant infrastructure boost. Business owners, startups, and SMEs will all be able to take advantage of the Noon platform, using its extensive distribution networks to reach new clients and provide an enhanced service for existing users.

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.