RIYADH: Affirming its commitment to supporting the fintech sector, the Saudi Central Bank has granted buy-now-pay-later platform Tamara a permit to pursue postpaid payment activity. With this move, there are now four authorized companies offering BNPL solutions, accelerating the Kingdom’s plans to become a regional fintech hub. The bank, also known as SAMA, is expecting to draw a new group of investors and companies to Saudi Arabia that can bring added value to the sector and the economy. The central bank is also working on using technology in financial services to support the Kingdom’s broader goals as it pushes ahead with the Vision 2030 economic diversification strategy. Under the Ministry of Finance’s national fintech strategy, the number of firms in the sector is expected to increase from 82 in 2022 to 230 by 2025. The plan also seeks to increase the fintech sector’s contribution to the gross domestic product to SR4.5 billion ($1.2 billion) and create nearly 6,000 jobs by 2025, besides increasing the share of digital transactions to 70 percent of all financial dealings.In May, SAMA granted permits to Spotii and Madfu to provide consumer finance through the BNPL platforms, which will also attract a new segment of investors and value-added firms to achieve more efficient operations. A permit was also given to MIS Forward in March to implement a BNPL solution, allowing customers to make purchases from merchants without having to pay term-financing fees. Speaking to Arab News in July last year, SAMA’s Deputy Governor for Development and Technology Ziad Al-Yousef said that the bank is planning to make Saudi Arabia a regional financial technology hub as part of its strategy to implement the Financial Sector Development Program envisaged in the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 blueprint. He added that the central bank is developing regulations to address new business models to assist and guide entrepreneurs in the payments, investments and financing sector. “We have issued 11 new regulations in the last two years to support new fintech ideas and business models. This is a continuous journey, and we are going to accelerate this now with the approval of the national fintech strategy that is now part of vision 2030,” Al-Yousef said at the time.