REUTERS
Ukraine is still at the bottom of the ranking in terms of the number of POS terminals per 1,000 people in Europe.
CEO of Mastercard Europe SA Inga Andreieva says the share of adults who have no bank accounts in Ukraine is 37%.
"The level of financial inclusion in the country is 63%, that is the share of those who have not bank accounts is 37%. What the Digital Transformation Ministry does is to show people that it is not 'scary,' but convenient. Financial inclusion in the Scandinavian countries accounts for 100%, while that in the United Kingdom for 98%," she said while presenting the business.diia.gov.ua national online platform on February 28.
Read alsoUkraine launches Diia app, opening access to wide range of gov't services online
Andreieva emphasized that a 10% increase in financial inclusion leads to the county's GDP growth by 0.3%, which will bring an additional UAH 10.6 billion (US$431.6 million) to the national budget.
At the same time, Ukraine is now catching up with European and world trends. According to the National Bank's statistics, eight out of 10 trade transactions in 2019 were carried out using bank cards, while cashless payments, for the first time, exceeded 50% of the total transactions.
"Five years ago, cashless transactions accounted for only 25%. So, we are moving very well, but there is always something to strive for since there are European countries where this figure is 90%, and even higher," she said.
In 2019, the number of POS terminals for payments with bank cards was 333,000, which was 19% up from 2018, the expert said. Some 90% of these terminals are contactless, which allows paying for purchases using modern gadgets (smartphones and smartwatches), which makes the infrastructure even more convenient. At the same time, Ukraine is still at the bottom of the ranking in terms of the number of POS terminals per 1,000 people in Europe.
"Today, this figure is 8.4 terminals per 1,000 people. In Europe, the average figure is 26, that is eight times higher. Therefore, we are focusing on the development of infrastructure, explaining to entrepreneurs that cashless [transactions] is primarily develop their business. We have high hopes for the new business.diia platform, which will explain you how to open an account, what an entrepreneur card and cashless infrastructure mean," Andreieva summed up.
As UNIAN reported earlier, the number of transactions using payment cards in Ukrainian increased by 29% in 2019 against 2018, while their volume grew by 24%, to UAH 3.6 trillion (US$146.6 billion).