Despite the ”more than excellent” numbers achieved by local banks by the end of 2024 regarding electronic services, Libya needs around 200,000 to 250,000 Point of Sales machines.
The declaration was made Musbah Al-Akkari, former chairman of Libya’s state-owned Jumhuria and National Commercial Banks and former member of the Central Bank of Libya (CBL) Dinar Revaluation Committee under the previous CBL Governor El-Kaber.
Al-Akkari was commenting on his social media site on statistics revealed at the Financial and Business exhibition that was held in Benghazi from 5 to 7 January 2025.
He said the excellent figures were especially in the field of Points of Sale, which he said is the most important tool that helps to reduce to end the ongoing and on-off problem of cash liquidity in the Libyan banking sector. Al-Akkari revealed that in 2024 there were:
- Points of Sale machines owned by the state Moamalat Company were 64,000
- Point of Sale machines owned by the (private sector) Tadawul Company 16,881
- Point of Sale machines owned by the (private sector) Masarat Company through Applications (APPS) 44,000
These totalled over 124.881 thousand points of sale, which Akkari said ‘‘is a very excellent number to contribute to solving the problem of liquidity.’’
Required volume of POS machines can be achieved in 2025
He said the size of the Libyan market needs from 200 to 250 thousand points of sale, adding that after listening to colleagues in banks and analysing the announced figures, he felt that the Libyan market will achieve the target this year.
Al-Akkari justified this by comparing the numbers to what they were between 2023-2024. The POS machine numbers in 2023 were about 37,000 but they jumped to 64,000 in 2024, nearly doubling the number issued by the Moamalat Company.
He added that with some of the measures that were announced by the Central Bank of Libya regarding reducing e-payments commissions and the need to expand electronic work, he was confident that these numbers will reach the target in 2025.
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