Dubai Beats Its 2026 Cashless Target at 90.1 Percent as Merchant Acceptance Reaches 91 Percent
Dubai has passed the 2026 goal of its cashless strategy with the final quarter of the year still to run. Its cashless transactions index reached 90.1 percent against a 90 percent target, and the Digital Enablement Index for the government sector reached 100 percent. Dubai Finance presented the strategy’s final report to the Dubai Strategic Affairs Council, and the results were announced on 9 October. The strategy was launched by Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum in October 2024 with a two-year timeframe, and the department’s August release set its goal as raising cashless transactions across the government and private sectors to 90 percent by the end of this year.
The headline index cleared its target by 0.1 point on our calculation. The detail underneath shows broader change. Merchants’ acceptance of digital payments rose 10 points to 91 percent, cash use fell among both tourists and workers, and satisfaction with digital payment rose among workers, tourists and small businesses. The department puts the economic contribution of cashless payment initiatives at more than 8 billion dirhams, without giving the period over which it accrued.
The scorecard
Dubai Cashless Strategy: Results Against the 2026 Goals
| Indicator | Target | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Cashless transactions index | 90% | 90.1% |
| Community happiness index | 90% | 90.1% |
| Government Digital Enablement Index | Not published | 100% |
| Government cashless collections, H1 2026 | Not published | 99.66% |
Results from the strategy’s final report as announced on 9 October 2026. The cashless transactions index draws on central bank data, Transguard, payment acquirers, international payment networks, the finance department and other Dubai government entities.
Digital channels took 99.66 percent of government collections in the first half of 2026, which leaves 0.34 percent still paid by other means on our calculation. Achievement reached 97 percent in governance, 95 percent in society and 93 percent in innovation, an average of 95.0 percent on our calculation, and the strategic accelerators were 95 percent complete by mid-year. Strategic partnerships passed 70.
The release does not publish the transaction values or volumes behind the cashless transactions index.
Where behaviour moved
The more telling numbers come from four groups: merchants, tourists, workers and small businesses.
Dubai’s Shift to Digital Payment, by Group
| Measure | Start | Latest | Change (points) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Merchants’ acceptance of digital payment | 81% | 91% | +10 |
| Tourists’ cash use | 24% | 22% | -2 |
| Workers’ cash use | 44% | 40% | -4 |
| SME satisfaction with digital payment | 90% | 91% | +1 |
| Workers’ satisfaction | 75% | 83% | +8 |
| Tourists’ satisfaction | 81% | 86% | +5 |
Start and latest readings as published by the finance department on 9 October 2026; the release does not date the starting readings. Point changes are our calculation.
Merchant acceptance is the biggest structural gain. Moving from 81 percent to 91 percent cuts the gap to full acceptance from 19 points to 9, a reduction of 52.6 percent on our calculation. Halving that gap matters more to a visitor or resident trying to go cash-free than another tenth of a point on the headline index.
Cash use fell at a similar relative pace among tourists and workers. Tourists’ cash use slipped 2 points to 22 percent, a relative fall of 8.3 percent on our calculation, while workers’ cash use dropped 4 points to 40 percent, a relative fall of 9.1 percent. Workers’ cash use is 1.8 times the tourist rate on our calculation.
Satisfaction rose most where it had the most room to rise. Workers’ satisfaction with digital payment rose 8 points to 83 percent and tourists’ rose 5 points to 86 percent. Small businesses, already at 90 percent, added 1 point.
The national rails underneath
Dubai’s next phase leans on national payment infrastructure. The finance department announced on 26 August that Jaywan, the UAE’s national payment card system, had been activated on the DubaiPay government platform after Digital Dubai completed operating tests, with the first transaction going through a donation service for Dubai Cares. Jaywan is run by Al Etihad Payments, a subsidiary of the Central Bank of the UAE, and works at points of sale, ATMs and online. The strategy’s next round of initiatives adds Aani, wider acceptance of global digital wallets, digital instalment products and the digital dirham.
Why it matters: With 99.66 percent of government collections made digitally in the first half and merchant acceptance of digital payment at 91 percent, cash is becoming optional at both the government counter and the shop counter in Dubai. The fall in cash use among workers and tourists shows the change reaching beyond the users who had already switched. Linking DubaiPay to Jaywan also connects Dubai’s government payments to the UAE’s own national card system.
Outlook: The department’s stated focus now is to sustain the 2026 results and widen digital solutions, with Aani, Jaywan, global wallets and the digital dirham named for the next phase. Workers’ cash use at 40 percent and a 9 point gap to full merchant acceptance mark where the next gains are available. Further group readings, and any publication of the transaction values behind the cashless transactions index, would show how far the shift has gone beyond the target.
Sources: Dubai Finance, Government of Dubai Media Office, The Edge.
