Get ready for some interesting numbers.
For five or six years, since the acceleration in the financial sector led by the Central Bank, acquiring was never a success story in the local market. A handful of institutions built products trying to make Iraqis' lives easier, yet little materialized locally. Cards — especially prepaid cards — were mostly used for purchases on international platforms like Amazon and Meta Ads, or for traveling (so much so that many called it a "travel card"). Locally, the story was different, with people increasingly interacting with points of cash.
The next chapter wasn't possible without a giant like Visa willing to take a bold step, and a local partner like Miswag willing to double down. Throughout the whole year, electronic payment never crossed 2% of Miswag's preferred payment methods — cash on delivery remained king at 98%. On Black Friday, Visa initiated a use case through Miswag for all Visa cardholders nationwide, built around more value-driven discounts regardless of issuer. Miswag went all-in, despite the previous readings and the disruption to normal cash cycles.
Today we're proud to say it works: a better, value-driven Black Friday offering pushed electronic payments to 11% of total transactions — outclassing the entire year's electronic-payment volume.