Dubai’s government payment platform has begun accepting Jaywan cards, linking the emirate’s public-sector payment infrastructure with the UAE’s national card scheme. Dubai Finance and Digital Dubai activated the new payment option after operational testing confirmed that DubaiPay could process Jaywan transactions.
The first government transaction conducted through the newly available network was a donation using the Dubai Cares service. The authorities described it as Jaywan’s first use across the government payment channels connected to DubaiPay.
DubaiPay is a Dubai Government-owned payment gateway used as a shared service by government bodies and other service providers. It allows payments through websites, kiosks, smartphones and other connected devices, with existing options including conventional credit and debit cards, digital wallets, online banking and Apple Pay. Adding Jaywan gives users another card option when paying participating entities, rather than creating a separate government payment platform.
Connecting National and Local Infrastructure
Jaywan is operated by Al Etihad Payments, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Central Bank of the UAE. The Central Bank introduced Jaywan as the country’s first domestic card scheme in February 2025, while nationwide issuance by banks, licensed financial institutions and exchange houses officially began in July 2026. The DubaiPay activation followed roughly one month later.
Unlike a mobile wallet or an individual banking application, Jaywan provides the underlying network through which eligible card transactions can be processed. Cardholders can use the scheme at supported point-of-sale terminals, ATMs and online merchants. Al Etihad Payments says Jaywan is designed to localize the processing of debit and prepaid-card transactions and keep associated payment data within the UAE.
Bringing the domestic scheme into DubaiPay creates a connection between two layers of public payment infrastructure: a national card network overseen through a Central Bank subsidiary and an emirate-level gateway serving government entities.
Ahmad Ali Meftah, executive director of the Central Accounts Sector at Dubai Finance, said: “integrating Jaywan strengthens interoperability between Dubai Government's digital financial infrastructure and the national payments ecosystem.”
Government Payments Support a Wider Target
The integration comes during the closing months of the Dubai Cashless Strategy, which seeks to make cashless methods account for 90% of transactions across Dubai’s public and private sectors by the end of 2026. The strategy also calls for government and business institutions across the emirate to become fully capable of accepting digital payments.
Government collections are already heavily digitized. When the strategy was announced in October 2024, Dubai officials reported that 97% of government transactions had been completed through digital channels in 2023. The 90% target covers the broader economy, however, including private-sector activity where payment habits and acceptance capabilities vary more widely.
Dubai estimates that the cashless program could add more than approximately $2.18 billion (AED 8 billion) to the economy annually through financial-technology development and expanded digital-payment activity.
Adoption Will Determine the Practical Effect
Abdulrahman Saleh Al Saleh, director-general of Dubai Finance, said: “Activating Jaywan on DubaiPay marks another important milestone in the development of Dubai's digital payments ecosystem and reflects our commitment to supporting national payment solutions and strengthening their integration into government services.”
The immediate change for users is comparatively straightforward: people holding an eligible Jaywan card can now select that network when making supported payments through DubaiPay. The institutional effect may be broader because government platforms generate recurring transactions involving residents, businesses and public bodies.
The rollout moves Jaywan beyond card issuance and into a government service used by residents and businesses. Its inclusion on DubaiPay gives the domestic scheme a practical role in public-sector payments, while leaving customers free to choose among the platform’s available payment methods.
