Oman Advances in Digital Payments, Yet 25% of Consumer Transactions Still in Cash: Visa’s Latest ‘Where Cash Hides’ Research

  • Research reveals motivators for cash usage and highlights opportunities to drive financial inclusion and enhance payment experience for consumers and businesses in Oman
  • Cash usage remains common in peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions, including tips, money exchanges between friends and family and rent, and everyday spending
  • Visa’s Manish Gautam: Despite progress with Oman’s digital transformation, opportunity remains to further digitize commerce in the Sultanate

Muscat, Oman, 27 January, 2025: While Oman is at the forefront of digital payments, a quarter (25%) of transactions of consumers surveyed are still in cash, according to the second edition of Visa’s ‘Where Cash Hides’ research.

The research, based on a survey of 2,800 individuals across GCC, examined the overall frequency of and motivations for cash usage. It identifies cash-heavy categories and proposes easier, more secure digital payment solutions for both consumers and local businesses. The first edition of Visa’s Where Cash Hides was conducted in 2023.

Key survey findings

Cash in specific transactions (by % of consumers surveyed):

In Oman, P2P transactions (42% versus 45% in 2023) and everyday spending (28% vs 31% in wave 1) form a large portion of cash usage.

  • Within the P2P segment, tips (66% vs 82%) was the top category where surveyed Oman consumers use cash seeing the biggest drop from 2023. This was followed by money exchanges between friends and family (53% vs 52%) and property rent (24% vs 33%). However, international money transfers through exchange houses saw an increase (23% vs 14%), indicating opportunities to advance secure, digital cross-border payments.
  • Everyday spending like offline taxi (63% vs 72%), farmers markets (55% vs 48%) and app-based taxi (33% vs 26%) are mostly where cash is used. Restaurants saw the biggest drop in cash usage (20% down from 38%), indicating progress in digitizing payments in those categories.

Motivators for cash usage (by % of consumers surveyed):

  • The top reasons respondents prefer cash for P2P are habit (32%) and convenience (28%). For everyday spends, the top reasons cited are speed (31%) and acceptance (26%).

Implications and solutions:

  • Efforts to introduce convenient and secure solutions such as Visa Direct (P2P, tips and other disbursements, and remittances), Click to Pay (better online checkout experience), and Tap to Phone (low-cost acceptance solution for SMBs, freelancers and taxi) will further drive digital payments and increase card acceptance in the categories identified.
  • Encouraging mobile and contactless payments also presents a pathway to increasing digital payments usage for everyday expenses. This requires education on acceptance and security of digital payments for both banked and unbanked populations.

Manish Gautam, Visa’s Country Manager for Oman, commented, “Despite progress with digital payment adoption in Oman, 25% of consumer transactions are still in cash. For Visa, this represents an opportunity to further drive financial inclusion and digitize commerce in the Sultanate. Our second edition of Visa’s Where Cash Hides research pinpoints precisely where and how Visa, together with our partners, can help grow the digital economy. At Visa, we remain committed to supporting the Oman government’s cashless agenda and enabling local businesses in creating a better payment experience for everyone, everywhere in the Sultanate."

Despite cash usage, consumers’ overall reliance on cash continues to remain low.  For nearly half (49%) of respondents, only 1-2 out of their last 10 transactions were in cash. Only 2% of respondents claimed that all (10 out of last 10) transactions were made with cash.   ​

For more information and details on the ‘Where Cash Hides’ Survey click here.