ePay bags 21st Middle East Smart Government and Smart Cities Excellence Award

UAE, June 8, 2016 - The ePay service provided by Smart Dubai Government Establishment (SDG) has bagged the 21st Middle East Smart Government and Smart Cities Excellence Award in the category of 'Smart ePayment Gateway Excellence Award', which is organized by the Middle East Excellence Awards Institute to recognize the strategic role played by government establishments, keep pace with the futuristic trends for comprehensive transformation towards smart government and governance systems and fulfill the vision of government establishments for adopting a sustainable global excellence strategy.

The ePay service, which enables individual and corporate customers to electronically pay the fees of government services provided by the participating government entities round the clock from anywhere, was launched in 2003, while the 5th generation of the service was launched in 2014.

H.E. Wesam Al Abbas Lootah, CEO of SDG, said: "We are working in collaboration with our strategic partners in several government and private entities in Dubai to form an integrated team and combine efforts for employing the modern innovation-based concepts and foreseeing the future with the aim of providing innovative smart solutions and hence achieving sustainable happiness for the society."

Expressing pleasure at SDG winning this award, Lootah said the award reflects SDG's endeavor to fulfill its vision of making Dubai the happiest and smartest city on earth and its mission of achieving happiness through the provision of world-class smart services and infrastructures for Dubai residents and visitors with the aim of supporting the emirate's comprehensive development plans through keeping pace with the innovative technologies and techniques and applying the best global practices and standards towards bringing more happiness to Dubai residents.

Lootah added: "The ePay gateway has contributed to generating huge revenues in terms of pressing government expenses through investing in the technological infrastructure provided by one entity, SDG, to all Dubai government departments and entities on one hand and to individuals and businesses on the other."

He emphasized that SDG would continue to employ its skills and high enablers, including highly advanced smart infrastructure, smart service systems and high-level technical support, most professionally to upgrade the performance of smart services and carry on the process of creativity and innovation with a view to achieving Smart Dubai's objectives towards making Dubai the smartest and happiest city in the world.

Recent statistics announced by SDG showed that the ePay service attracted more businesses and individuals, rising by 29 per cent in the amounts collected in 2015 over those collected in 2014 and by 28 per cent in the number of transactions concluded through the service over the same period.

The amounts collected in favour of the participating entities reached around AED 9 billion by the end of December 2015 which were generated from 6,742,722 transactions compared with AED 7 billion in the same period the previous year through 5,260,125 transactions.

As much as AED 3.6 billion was generated through 2,498,888 transactions between the beginning of January 2016 and the end of April 2016.

The PCI DSS-compliant ePay provides a reliable and secure payment service of high performance in line with the world's best standards and contributes to easing the lives of customers, making customers happier and bringing about cost savings for customers and Dubai government entities. Customers using the ePay service can pay the fees of their transactions through many user-friendly channels including the World Wide Web, IVR, self-service machines, smart devices, customer service centres and wearables.

Customers can inquire about the SDG's services and apps round the clock through SDG's call centre, which provides its services in both Arabic and English through several channels including telephone on 600 560 000 or email on help@dsg.gov.ae.