Saudi Arabia has launched an e-invoicing system that it believes will revolutionise payment processes for government bodies and suppliers.
The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority’s (SAMA) Esal payment platform is in line with Saudi Vision 2030 and a financial sector development programme that aims to increase the number of digital financial transactions.
State-run Saudi Press Agency said the platform will help reduce transaction costs and promote organisational efficiency by simplifying the invoicing process between suppliers and government bodies.
It is also expected to improve payment management by making invoice status more visible and providing access to user-friendly graphs and payment analyses.
Additionally the platform will enable reconciliation and settlement through an integrated digital control panel with the aim of creating cost savings.
Hashem bin Othman Alhekail, deputy governor for banking operations at SAMA, said: “Across the globe, we have recently seen e-invoicing spread with increasing speed, with the benefits of country-wide adoption being felt across Europe and Latin America.
“With this in mind, we developed a business-friendly platform that will support Saudi Arabia's thriving economy.”
SAMA plans to add additional functionalities to the service in the next 12 months to further improve B2B payment processes.
Ziad Al Yousef, managing director of payment systems at SAMA, said: “The payments landscape has been increasingly shifting towards electronic methods in KSA.
“We developed Esal because wanted to ensure that businesses and governments... had a secure solution to electronically transfer invoices and collect payments in a swift and transparent way.”
He added that by facilitating interactions between suppliers and buyers the service will enable immense improvements in customer experience, financial management and collections.
SAMA said leading firms across several industries including insurance, retail, healthcare, industrial goods and logistics in both public and private sectors had already signed up to use the Esal platform.
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