Recipient of 9th Golden Excellence Awards 2026 for Fintech Innovation By: Shaneer Siddiqui
1. Tell us about yourself, your business journey and your contribution to the UAE.
I spent a decade in investment banking in London before moving to Abu Dhabi in 2017 to build NoorPay, a digital payments and micro-lending platform for small businesses that traditional banks often overlook. We now process payments for over eighteen thousand SMEs across the UAE. My contribution has been proving that financial inclusion and profitability aren’t opposites — the small trader in Satwa deserves the same quality of financial tooling as a listed company.
2. What does receiving the 9th Golden Excellence Award for Fintech Innovation mean to you?
It validates a bet we made early — that the UAE’s regulatory environment was mature enough to support serious fintech innovation, not just experimentation. Being recognized under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Nahyan Mabarak Al Nahayan means a lot personally, since financial inclusion is itself a form of coexistence — giving everyone equal access to opportunity regardless of where they started.
3. How do you view the role of the Ministry of Tolerance and Coexistence in shaping the UAE’s society?
Access and inclusion are the same principle applied to different fields — one to culture, one to commerce. The Ministry’s work creates the social trust that lets a fintech company like ours serve customers from every background without friction. You cannot build inclusive financial products in a society that isn’t already practicing inclusion.
4. What opportunities do you see emerging in your industry over the next few years?
Embedded finance — lending and payments built directly into the platforms SMEs already use — is going to explode. AI-driven credit scoring will also finally let us serve businesses with thin credit histories fairly, rather than excluding them by default.
5. What are your company’s key plans and growth priorities for the future?
We’re launching a working-capital product for e-commerce sellers and expanding into Saudi Arabia next year. Long term, we want NoorPay to be the default financial layer for every small business in the GCC that doesn’t have time to deal with a traditional bank.
“The most exciting technology isn’t the one that impresses investors — it’s the one a shopkeeper in Deira can use without a manual.” — Farah Haddad
