Sending money home and receiving payments from international suppliers will become easier for UAE consumers and businesses following a partnership between e& money, the financial super app from e& life, and global online payment system PayPal.
The two companies are set to launch a solution that seamlessly links PayPal money balances with e& money, allowing users to securely and cost-effectively access and transfer funds in their PayPal accounts in the UAE at Gitex Global this week.
The first phase will enable e& money customers to securely and cost-effectively access and transfer funds in their PayPal accounts, converting US dollars to dirhams. Under the second phase, a date for which has not yet been announced, UAE residents will be able to top up their PayPal holdings with funds from their e& money account.
The convenient and seamless built-in integration lets consumers see the applied exchange rate and margin before confirming a transfer with clear fee disclosure, resulting in secure and compliant transfers and instant withdrawals.
“The strategic partnership with PayPal is a big step towards advancing the UAE’s cashless economy while adding value to our customers' lives by making financial access faster, simpler and more inclusive,” said Khalifa Al Shamsi, chief executive of e& life and e& international, in an interview at Gitex Global in Dubai.
e& money is the fintech arm of e& life and is the first digital payment service to be licensed by the UAE Central Bank, and is the nation’s fastest-growing digital wallet.
Mr Al Shamsi, who has 30 years of experience in the telecoms and information and communication technology sectors, is also chief executive of the group’s e& international vertical. Complementary but distinct, the two verticals play a significant role in powering e&’s growth – and with it, in augmenting the UAE’s economic strengths.
The new capability slots neatly into e& money’s broad offering, which links remittance tools with the UAE’s Wage Protection System at a time when technology such as artificial intelligence and open finance is driving the convergence of payments, media and commerce.
Digital infrastructure
Building an integrated financial super app is a way of meeting UAE consumers’ every financial need, as its parent, e& undertakes the foundational work of building the infrastructure of the UAE’s digital and AI economy.
Formerly Etisalat, the oldest telecommunications company in the country, e& has transformed into a global technology group and is investing in advanced network technologies, expanding its cloud and data centre infrastructure and embedding AI directly into its operations and customer-facing services.
In a May white paper on 6G technology, the widely anticipated sixth generation of cellular networks, e& laid out its roadmap to the future: intelligent, adaptive digital infrastructure capable of making autonomous decisions, strengthening national resilience and enabling next-generation services.
Bringing PayPal to the UAE is just one way e& is broadening digital access, delivering on its vision to digitally empower societies. By easing cross-border transactions, the e& money and PayPal partnership will advance the UAE’s ambition of building a global knowledge economy underpinned by fintech, e-commerce, AI and smart infrastructure. The National Digital Economy Strategy aims to increase the digital economy’s contribution to GDP from 9.7 per cent to 19.4 per cent within 10 years.
In parallel, Dubai is working to strengthen its standing as one of the world’s top digital cities. The emirate has set targets under the Dubai Cashless Strategy to materially increase cashless transactions to 90 per cent of total payments by next year as part of goals spanning governance, financial technology and digital innovation.
“Participation in the digital economy should be universal, and by leveraging our digital infrastructure backbone, we’re also a launch pad for fintech, media, digital lifestyles and more,” Mr Al Shamsi said.
“For today’s connected consumers, convenience is king. Downtime is a nightmare, and their digital lives should flow seamlessly, from blazing-fast networks to smooth app experiences and instant payments. It's all about ‘everything just works,’” he added. “So e& money has a single-point agenda: to make consumers’ lives easier.”
In a significant move to strengthen the UAE's financial ecosystem, President Sheikh Mohamed issued Federal Decree Law No. (6) of 2025 last week to establish a comprehensive framework to regulate financial institutions and activities. The decree emphasises universal access to banking services, enhanced consumer protection and digital innovation. e& money’s goals align strongly with these principles.
“At e& money, we are proud to contribute to the UAE leadership's vision for financial inclusion, ensuring that every individual, whether banked or unbanked, has access to secure and innovative financial services,” Mr Al Shamsi told The National.
“Our initiatives, from instant Iban accounts and virtual cards to salary solutions and cross-border transfers, reflect the core objectives of the newly issued Federal Decree Law – namely access, protection, and innovation. As a licensed entity under the Central Bank of the UAE, we remain fully aligned with the country's financial transformation agenda, empowering all community segments through smart, inclusive, and digitally driven solutions.”
Remittances and investments
In the first half of this year, e& money reported triple its gross transaction value (GTV). It now counts more than 1.9 million registered users, and the company has issued more than 1.25 million physical and digital cards. Expanding its offerings, e& money partnered with bullion reseller SafeGold to introduce gold investing directly within its app.\
Remittance GTV, powered by partnerships with US payments services MoneyGram and Mastercard Transfast, rose 3.1 times year-on-year, reinforcing its lead in UAE digital payments. The service was launched three years ago, and its rapid uptake reflects the strong adoption of its platform across the UAE’s growing fintech sector.
On the banking side, Wio Bank expanded among consumers and small and medium enterprises, offering features that help customers grow their wealth. It was recognised as the Middle East’s Best Digital Bank by Euromoney in 2025 and formed a strategic partnership with Network International, empowering SME merchants with enhanced digital credit solutions.
Strategic integrations with other financial players further broaden e& money’s financial-inclusion and product stack. With First Abu Dhabi Bank, e& money introduced Iban accounts for all customers, allowing users to conduct local transfers and top up balances directly through the app, further enhancing the platform’s ability to offer integrated banking services, especially for the unbanked population. This move supports broader financial inclusion goals through secure, no-minimum-balance digital banking and without upfront fees.
In August, e& money also announced that paying domestic workers registered with the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation would become easier, following a digital connection between the two entities. Domestic workers receive an Iban international bank account number, a digital wallet and a Mastercard prepaid card.
e& money consumers can already use the app to send funds abroad, thanks to the existing partnership with MoneyGram. International money transfers are set to be further boosted by e& money’s new agreement with PayPal, which brings the global payment system’s accounts into the UAE’s financial ecosystem. With the e& money linkage, PayPal account holders will be able to settle bills, remit money to foreign countries and shop online. There are also plans for e& to join PayPal World, which is a series of global partnerships connecting many of the world’s largest payment systems and digital wallets on a single platform.
Small businesses, freelancers and digital creators will also benefit. Their businesses often rely on peer-to-peer payments such as PayPal, but they must currently deal with slow and/or costly withdrawal options.
“With PayPal, we’re helping creators and gig workers in the UAE take on jobs from anywhere and get paid reliably,” Mr Al Shamsi said.
Inclusive connectivity
Those initiatives are echoed by developments in other business lines Mr Al Shamsi leads. e& international has embraced its role as a global connector serving 182.5 million customers. The vertical is focused on inclusive connectivity across 19 markets outside the UAE, at a time when 2.6 billion people (32 per cent of the world’s population) remain offline, according to the International Telecommunications Union.
In 2024, the company acquired a controlling stake in four operating markets of PPF Telecom, which operates in Central and Eastern Europe. The move diversifies and grows e&’s geographical presence to 38 countries, including Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia and Slovakia. Since then, the newly created e& PPF Telecom Group has completed the full acquisition of Serbia Broadband, adding more than 700,000 fixed-line and pay-TV customers.
Elsewhere in the e& PPF Telecom portfolio, Yettel Serbia launched a bundled telecom and banking programme, with cashback, discounts and a universal card. O2 Slovakia, meanwhile, participated in that country’s large spectrum auction and secured 13 blocks across five frequency bands, with licenses extending to 2048. While Slovakia's auction has concluded, Serbia is preparing for its own 5G spectrum allocation, with its telecommunications regulatory agency RATEL set to hold an auction in the fourth quarter of 2025.
“These expansions are about more than geographical growth. They’re about accelerating digital transformation in these markets with cutting-edge products that span B2B and B2C offerings and which unlock synergies across multiple dimensions,” Mr Al Shamsi said.
e& played a key role in the successful landing of the 10,000-km Africa-1 submarine cable in Karachi, Pakistan, as part of a global consortium led by major telecom operators, connecting the South Asian country to key international markets, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kenya and France. The South Asian country’s competition commission has cleared telecommunications company PTCL’s acquisition of Telenor Pakistan and Orion Towers, subject to conditions. The acquisition will add 43 million customers to e&'s subscriber base once all regulatory approvals are secured.
In January, e& Egypt launched Wi-Fi calling services in the North African country, enabling high-quality voice calls over Wi-Fi networks. e& Egypt has also brought 5G to customers across the nation, promising to reshape local connectivity and opening the door to digital innovations that were previously out of reach.
And in Morocco, Maroc Telecom acquired 120MHz of 5G spectrum and expanded its partnership with Inwi (Wana Corporate) to accelerate fibre and 5G roll-out with two new joint ventures, UniFiber and UniTower.
Under its Partner Markets Programme, the company signed a memorandum of understanding with Kazakhstan-based KCell to strengthen network performance and reliability as part of a wide-scale digital transformation agreement.
Nearer home, Saudi Arabia’s Mobily announced investments of more than 3.4 billion riyals in digital infrastructure projects, including data centres and submarine cables, and expanded its loyalty partnerships with the flynas airline, as well as signing a co-operation agreement with the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah to enhance the digital experience for pilgrims and visitors.
Digital lifestyle hub
Alongside connectivity and financial transactions sit entertainment and lifestyle. Here, e& life is tapping new technologies such as AI to expand its streaming service into a digital lifestyle hub. For its six-million-strong viewership, this means a blend of live sports, exclusive originals, on-demand entertainment and shopping across 22 countries.
STARZ ON has surpassed 10 million installs with over 660,000 monthly active users, while the launch of enfuse, a data collaboration hub, and the rollout of Shoppable TV have enhanced the platform's capabilities. In the first quarter of this year, the company ventured into original content production with evision Studios. Two programmes on the STARZ ON streaming service tapped into the appetite for local content: the cooking show, Flavours from the Heart, and the Arabic-language comedy series CoffeeCature.
The platform aims to be the Middle East and North Africa’s 'Home of Sports'. To that end, it has secured exclusive rights for cricket properties including the Indian Premier League and the Asia Cup, while complementing its Ultimate Fighting Championship offering by adding the Professional Fighters League to its fighting sports portfolio.
E& life has also grown its Careem Technologies business, where overall GTV grew 117 per cent in the first half of the year, with GTV per user rising 74 per cent over the same period. Careem+ members contributed over 55 per cent of total GTV in the second quarter. The platform has also expanded geographically, launching food delivery in Al Ain and Sharjah, and grocery services in Riyadh. Here, too, AI has helped optimise the offering, with AI-based agents now automating over 75 per cent of chats.
Across his remit, Mr Al Shamsi is showing how an established ‘telco’ can transform into a 21st-century ‘techco’. e& international provides reach, while e& life connects customers to services and experiences, and AI stitches everything together into a scalable ecosystem.
“Today, infrastructure is intelligent; it anticipates, adapts and enables,” he said. “When a freelancer in Dubai receives payment from a client in New York, streams their favourite show during a break and orders dinner, all seamlessly and within minutes, that's a single, coherent digital life. The UAE's promise to the world is clear: technology that not only connect people to networks but connects possibilities to people.”
This page was produced by The National in partnership with e&.
