Tech Outage Teaches UAE the Value of Cash
Sep 16, 2024
The IT crash that disrupted systems worldwide in late July has been described as ‘a wake-up call’ for governments, businesses and citizens—especially in countries where cashless payments are most popular, such as the United Arab Emirates—and a reminder to ‘always keep cash on hand’.
The global outage brought banking, transport, healthcare, broadcasting, telecoms and other sectors to a standstill—thanks to one flawed software update—but many businesses were able to continue operating by switching to cash payments. Not everyone was prepared, however.
Writing for Khaleej Times, SM Ayaz Zakir says many UAE residents who have become dependent on cashless payments ‘suddenly had to scramble for cash as shops put up an uncommon sign: Cash Only’.
Pakistani expat Nida Huq stopped to refuel her car as she was driving her son to summer camp, and when she saw a board saying the station could only accept cash payments, she hurriedly checked her bag ‘and found only 70 dirham ($19). She had to ask the attendant to stop the petrol pump, and was permitted to leave and bring the rest of the money an hour later.
Marketing Executive Mohammed AbuHamid reports being ‘embarrassed’ when he and his friends had to leave a restaurant without paying the bill.
After a nice meal, I found out the POS machines were not functioning, and some of my colleagues did not even [have] their wallets. All we had was 50 dirham with us and the total bill was about 140 dirham… The restaurant staff knew us and we had to leave without paying the bill initially. We returned in the evening to settle it. It was embarrassing and inconvenient.
Engineer Awais Toor was also caught offguard when buying groceries, saying he ‘tapped the card thrice, but the payment was declined’, which made him ‘furious’ as he believed his account must have been hacked.
I had to go to the ATM and withdraw cash to pay to the grocer. Thankfully, the ATM was working. On my way back from the ATM, I read the news about the technical defect in the CrowdStrike software update
Zakir concludes that UAE residents have ‘learned a lesson’ of keeping enough cash on hand to cover immediate expenses, since no cashless payment is infallible while cash doesn’t crash.