News

Saudi National Day 2022 To Be Held In The Metaverse

Developed by creative agency The Bold Group, Saudi Arabia will host its first ever National Day as a virtual event, complete with collectable NFT wearables.

Published

4 years ago

September 19, 2022

Nour Nasir

saudi national day 2022 to be held in the metaverse

The concept behind the metaverse is that of a persistent, 3D online world combining multiple virtual spaces. The metaverse will be a place where users can work, game, and socialize together in a digital environment. On the 22-24th of September 2022, the online universe will edge closer to the mainstream, hosting the first ever Saudi National Day as a virtual event.

The pioneering online festival has been organized and developed by The Bold Group in collaboration with the King Abdulaziz Foundation for Research and Archives (Darah). The event will showcase immersive 3D spaces, enabling visitors to tour the Kingdom and soak up the local heritage, landmarks, food, culture, music, and more.

saudi national day 2022 metaverse

As well as the experience of a virtual visit to Saudi Arabia, the Bold Group’s decentralized platform will feature iconic wearable national attire in the form of NFTs. The organizers will also provide POAP (Proof of Attendance Protocol) as a limited edition collectible NFT so virtual tourists can show off their participation in the world’s first virtual Saudi National Day.

“We’re witnessing a major transformation in the Saudi digital industry where Saudi Arabia is being increasingly recognized as a key player in the global technology scene […] Disruptive technologies like the metaverse is the future, and we at The Bold Group aim to be a key player in that evolution. The idea to usher in the Saudi National Day […] was inspired by the challenge of convening people across the Kingdom’s 13 different regions to celebrate Saudi Arabia in one virtual space,” says Ziad AbuRjaily, Creative Technology Director in the Bold Experience Unit.

Also Read: Google Plans A Future Where Robots Think For Themselves

Saudi Arabia is currently at the cutting edge of the world’s digital transformation and aims to become a global technology hub. Groundbreaking events like the Saudi National Day will further highlight the region as a place where innovation and creativity flourish, putting the Kingdom at the center of the rapidly expanding metaverse.

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.