Aani instant payments platform reaches 1.5 million users in UAE

The UAE's instant payment platform Aani has reached 1.5 million registered users, marking rapid adoption since its launch as the country's national real-time payment infrastructure.

Aani, operated by Al Etihad Payments, a subsidiary of the Central Bank of the UAE, enables real-time, around-the-clock money transfers using mobile phone numbers or email addresses as payment identifiers. The platform eliminates the need for senders to know recipients' bank account numbers or IBANs, simplifying the peer-to-peer payment experience.

The 1.5 million user milestone was achieved within a short period of the platform's launch, reflecting strong consumer demand for instant payment capabilities in the UAE. The rapid adoption has been supported by integration across multiple UAE banks, giving a large proportion of the country's banking customers access to the service through their existing mobile banking apps.

Aani joins a growing list of national instant payment systems across the Gulf, including Saudi Arabia's Sarie, Kuwait's WAMD, and Qatar's FAWRAN. The UAE's entry into the instant payment space was highly anticipated given the country's large expatriate population and high volume of domestic peer-to-peer transfers.

The platform supports both consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer use cases, with plans to expand into merchant payments and additional services over time. Al Etihad Payments has been building the infrastructure to support growing transaction volumes as adoption accelerates.

The achievement underscores the UAE's position as one of the Gulf's most advanced digital payment markets, with infrastructure that increasingly matches or exceeds the capabilities of leading global markets.