The world leader in the digital payments industry Visa is ready to launch cashless payments in Azerbaijan’s transport sector and to work with all market participants, Senior Director and Regional Manager of Visa in Azerbaijan, Nurlan Hajiyev, announced Wednesday.
Noting that Visa is glad to work in Azerbaijan’s transport sector, he pointed out that Visa was the first to launch cashless payments in Azerbaijan’s railway transport, adding that all 14 stations of the Absheron Ring Railway, the capital of Baku’s suburban railway, now have validators for accepting non-cash payments installed.
In the summer of 2021, Azerbaijan Railways CJSC, in partnership with Visa and the Central Bank of Azerbaijan, expanded contactless card payments to all stations on a busy railway connecting Baku to the nearby city Sumgait as part of the state program to expand digital payments in Azerbaijan over 2018-2020 during which, according to the Central Bank, the number of contactless cards rocketed by 5.5 times to 4.6 million cards.
Vira Platonova, Visa’s Senior Vice President and Group Country Manager of CISSEE, underscored at the time that this project illustrated how contactless journeys can be used to support wider digital drives.
Hajiyev noted that, in October 2022, they’ve also launched first time in Azerbaijan the Mobility & Transit Transaction (MTT) technology, which allows operators to offer passengers a range of flexible fares – fixed fares, distance, and time-based fares, multi-modal fares – but they can now also use features such as fare capping, benefits, and delay refunds.
Visa was also the key player behind the drive to accelerate Azerbaijan’s transition to a cashless economy, with Visa Token Service technology (tokenization) – which was launched in 2019 – creating conditions for global players entering the Azerbaijani market.
Hajiyev emphasized that Visa is ready to continue the cooperation to expand the acceptance of bank cards in all segments of Azerbaijan’s transport and is open to working with all transport organizations.
In 2022, the volume of non-cash payments in Azerbaijan amounted to 58.56 billion manat ($34.45 billion) – a 56.26% percent increase compared to 2021.
