du explained that the Salary in the Digital Wallet solution will benefit UAE’s blue-collar workforce, which earns less than Dh5,000 per month.
Digital payment services are the most convenient and widely used, to the point where the circulation of liquid cash has witnessed a considerable decline. From grocery shopping to rent payments, users prefer online payment over traditional banking services and cash transactions. Banks and digital service providers are collaborating to provide users with the fastest, easiest, and most secure means of payment transfers.
UAE’s du grabbed headlines when it announced on Monday that it was launching a new service known as ‘Salary in the Digital Wallet.’ Blue-collar workers will be able to get their salaries credited directly to their ‘du Pay’ digital wallets.
du primarily offers telecom and broadband services, and the recently launched du Pay is the company’s attempt to diversify operations. An increasing number of Emirati citizens are adopting digital wallet services, and therefore, the direct salary credit feature is a milestone for du. Funds will be credited to the du Pay app, and a card will also be available to carry out cashless transactions.
The company said in a statement that the reason it has targeted the blue-collar workforce is that a significant portion of this population has limited access to traditional banking services. du also explained that the Salary in the Digital Wallet solution will benefit blue-collar workers in the UAE who usually earn less than Dh5,000 per month.
du Pay offers the option for customers to open a zero-balance account, negating the hassle of cash handling and allowing them to enjoy seamless digital transactions. This wallet service also enables bill payments and international money transfers.
Due to its effective pricing and marketing strategies on the primary international money flow routes from the UAE, du Pay is becoming a significant player in the remittance industry in the UAE. The company’s half-year profits increased 20% year-on-year to Dh1.44 billion from Dh1.18 billion as the teleco’s mobile subscriptions, coupled with demand for high-speed 5G-enabled networks, soared.
It was reported in July that du’s interim dividends of Dh0.24 per share are 20% higher than what the company paid during the same period in 2024. Listed in the Dubai Financial Market (DFM), du’s stocks are priced at Dh10 a piece, with a 35% gain in year-to-date. The Dubai-headquartered company’s revenue also increased 8%, reaching Dh7.75 billion.
Fahad Al Hassawi, CEO of du, attributes this success to the UAE’s first sovereign hyperscale cloud platform, which was introduced by the company. Along with this, du has also made significant strides in developing its hyperscale data centre by collaborating with Microsoft. This has cemented the company as one of the Emirates’ leaders in secure, AI-powered digital infrastructure.
The du cloud platform is catered to addressing the unique needs of large organisations, and the UAE government, which require services offering a balance between the agility of the public cloud and data sovereignty and security. With this sovereign cloud platform, du aims to reel in bigger contracts for its cloud services.
du has consistently worked towards expanding its digital technology infrastructure to support and serve public entities. The ‘du Tech National Hypercloud’ is an example of the company’s efforts to develop such sovereign, secure, and scalable infrastructure. Jasim AlAwadi, Chief ICT Officer at du, said in July that the company was looking forward to debuting its National Hypercloud platform, which is not only user-friendly but also upholds the tenets of national data control.
With this cloud platform, du hopes for a digital transformation in how the UAE’s public sector enterprises operate, offering a conducive environment to integrate rapid cloud services and secure and localised data management.
With its initiatives aimed at revitalising the Emirati public sector and enabling smoother digital payment services for the blue-collar workforce, du has emerged as an important leader in the UAE’s telco industry.