Visa has announced the appointment of Nasser Bdeir as Country Manager for Oman, effective May 25. He is based out of Visa’s Riyadh office, the company’s regional headquarters for Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Bahrain. Nasser succeeds Manish Gautam, who was in the role since 2019 and has now transitioned to Visa’s regional HQ in Riyadh to manage Visa Commercial Solutions—one of Visa’s strategically important businesses across Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Oman.
With Visa since 2013, Nasser assumes his new role after leading key markets and functions in the GCC, including Head of Financial Institutions and managing leading banks, driving growth and innovation for merchants and fintechs, and market development. Before Visa, Nasser spent 5 years with Banque Saudi Fransi.
Bdeir said, “I am thrilled to have the opportunity to lead our operations in an exciting market such as Oman. I am looking forward to working closely with our clients to introduce new payment innovations that benefit Omani consumers and businesses. We are deeply committed to supporting the Oman government's cashless agenda and creating an inclusive, resilient digital economy where everyone, everywhere in Oman can participate and be empowered by the benefits digital commerce offers.”
Oman has established a progressive regulatory framework to enable the growth of the Sultanate’s digital economy. Despite progress with the economy’s digital transformation, around 25% of Oman consumer transactions are still in cash, according to Visa’s recent Where Cash Hides research.
For Visa, this represents an opportunity for the Oman payments industry to further drive financial inclusion and digitize commerce in the Sultanate. Visa is committed to the government’s cashless agenda by continuing to support its partner banks and new entrants with its payment innovations as well as its global network of 4.6 billion cardholders and more than 150 million merchant partners.
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