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The Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement between India and the UAE will boost the remittance corridor between the two countries as well as create a supportive environment to build interoperable digital solutions, according to leading financial services company LuLu Financial Holdings.
The Abu Dhabi-headquartered LuLu Financial Holdings, which is into cross-border payments among other areas, has substantial investments in the UAE and India. It has presence in 11 countries and manages transactions worth over USD 8 billion annually.
The CEPA between India and the UAE was signed on February 18, and came into force from May 1. The agreement covers trade in goods, rules of origin, trade in services, Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures, dispute settlement and digital trade, among other areas.
“The relationship between UAE and India is at the highest peak at this time… there is a lot of interest by UAE companies to invest in India… CEPA is going to be the foundation on which things are going to be built,” LuLu Financial Holdings’ Managing Director Adeeb Ahamed told PTI.
Ahamed, who is in the national capital as part of a high-level UAE delegation visiting India, said it was all about creating that underlying foundation from which many sectors can benefit — trade, goods, services and digital.
According to him, CEPA will create a supportive environment for investors and existing players in both countries to build interoperable digital solutions keeping the huge potential of the two economies.
With the fintech industry growing significantly in India and UAE, he said it was imperative to make payments affordable for the masses and that requires greater access to critical technologies, new investments and homegrown solutions that can enable real-time money transfer on mobile payment solutions.
The CEPA, which also considers the prospects of digital trade between the two countries, mentions about offering service providers with an open and non-discriminatory environment for cross-border trade in financial and insurance services.
Noting that the agreement represents an ongoing effort to ease the multi-billion trade corridor between the two countries, Ahamed said that from a payments industry perspective, it will help boost the UAE-India remittance corridor.
“At USD 20 billion plus, this is the world’s second largest corridor after US-Mexico and contributes 33 per cent of the inward remittance volume to India,” he pointed out.
Creating a favourable ecosystem to serve financial services, will lead to greater data protection, and lower financial crime as well, Ahamed said, adding that both countries might well aspire to become a springboard for companies looking to build meaningful solutions, for both MENA and the South Asian regions.
MENA refers to the Middle East and North Africa.
With respect to cross-border payments, as per estimates, fees imposed on transactions in the UAE-India corridor is among the lowest globally at around 5.31 per cent, which is below the global average of 6.3 per cent for sending USD 200.
Studies have suggested that cutting prices by at least 5 percentage points can save up to USD 16 billion a year in savings globally, and considering the volume of transactions conducted annually, fintech holds the potential to lower transaction costs even further, Ahamed noted.
Before signing the pact with the UAE, India had last inked a CEPA with Malaysia back in 2011.
The latest CEPA covers almost all the tariff lines dealt in by India (11,908 tariff lines) and the UAE (7,581 tariff lines), respectively. India will benefit from preferential market access provided by the UAE on over 97 per cent of its tariff lines which account for 99 per cent of Indian exports to the UAE in value terms, according to a release issued by India’s commerce and industry ministry in March.
India will also be offering preferential access to the UAE on more than 90 per cent of its tariff lines, including lines of export interest to the UAE.
Yusuffali MA, Chairman of Lulu Group and Vice-Chairman of Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce, said that with the signing of CEPA, many new avenues of collaborations will open and will benefit businesses from both countries and beyond as UAE is a key gateway to Middle East and Africa. “The current bilateral trade volume of USD 53 billion is expected to double to USD 100 billion in five years”.
“As a UAE-based business group with a sizeable presence in India, especially in the retail and food processing sectors, we are hoping that our imports from India will see new levels of growth which will further strengthen the food security of UAE,” he said in a statement.

Adeeb Ahamed, Managing Director of Lulu Financial Group, has received the Bahrain golden residency visa. Ahamed was awarded the honour by Shaikh Khalid bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, Deputy Prime Minister of Bahrain. “I am humbled and delighted to receive this honor today. I thank His Majesty King Hamad bin Eisa Al Khalifa, His Royal Highness Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Bahrain and the government and people of Bahrain, for bestowing this recognition on me,” Ahamed said, after receiving his Golden Visa.
Launched in February this year, the Golden residency visa for non-Bahrainis is part of the country’s economic recovery plan to attract global talent and boost investment to Bahrain. “The Golden Visa is a benchmark of recognition that will boost Bahrain’s image as a business hub, in traditional and new-age sectors,” Ahamed added.

When the pandemic struck, experts forecast a massive dip in global remittances. These forecasts though didn’t consider the power of human emotion in connecting the world’s 200+ million migrant communities with their families back home.
Negating all forecasts, the remittance industry saw a drop of only 1.6 per cent in 2020 and went beyond expectations to record a growth in 2021. A familial bond holds an intangible value, as the numbers prove. This year, the International Day of Family Remittances – celebrated annually on June 16 – comes at a time when the world is grappling with a heightened sense of economic insecurity.
While economies will struggle and jobs affected, the migrant worker’s role in strengthening the social contract with their loved ones has gained newfound attention. The sacrifice and hardship of the world’s migrants are a precursor to the $600 billion and more remitted every year. Over 800 million families rely on this flow to supplement their income shortages and lead a qualitative life. The role of remittances in upholding the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals cannot be discounted, although it only forms half the story of family wellbeing.
Enabling financial inclusion for families
Equitable financial inclusion remains the ultimate KPI of a society in progress. In developing economies, families at the receiving end of remitted money often have little understanding of avenues for savings and investments. Yes, the money is coming in, but it’s always risky to be dependent solely on it for sustenance.
In this regard, it’s important to empower families and create opportunities for easier access to finance, as well as to invest one’s human capital into income streams to grow their standard of life. Conjoining this other half of the spectrum with the remittance economy is thus critical to ensure a migrant’s contribution reaps good dividends at a family and community level.
Financial literacy takes top priority in this regard. The onus is on multiple stakeholders connected to the financial services ecosystem to bridge the gap so that this flow of money acts as capital or source of investment for families to take the next step in wealth creation. This will ultimately have a far-reaching impact on shaping several aspects of community development by promoting entrepreneurship and a yearning for sustainable livelihood in the society.
Programs around financial literacy aren’t new, but tying their objectives with beneficiary families is bound to have a greater scope in unlocking societal development. In an uncertain world, there cannot be a bigger contribution to advance the cause of financial inclusion, while simultaneously honoring the efforts of those remitting their hard-earned money.

Both Abu Dhabi-based LuLu Financial Holdings and the Nepal – based money transfer service Samsara Remit join Aerotruth‘s commercial partner onboarding platform. Aerotruth is an Australian and New Zealand-based startup. Its online platform has been designed to make the partner business-to-business (B2B) onboarding process for fintechs, banks and other financial institutions easier. The industry is currently experiencing a heightened level of inter-sector collaboration but also remains dependent on efficient B2B partner onboarding processes.
Traditional email-based onboarding methods are time-consuming, burdening companies with cumbersome documentation exchanges. Delays and technical complexities also lead to abandonment, further magnifying the costs of inefficient onboarding processes.
In an effort to reevaluate the maintenance of this process, both LuLu Financial Holdings and Samsara Remit are to now leverage Aerotruth’s cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) document repository platform. Aerotruth’s platform assists in the management of the document exchange process required between companies when onboarding new and existing commercial partners. Aerotruth’s clients can also network with each other, providing a pre-qualified avenue to partnership and network growth.
Identifying a “real and pressing global need for a safe and secure software platform for partner onboarding” Aerotruth co-founder and CEO Michael Liu remains “delighted” with the news of LuLu Financial Holdings and Samsara Remit are using the company’s platform.
Expressing that the company’s fintech arm, Digit9, was actively seeking to digitise its partner onboarding process, LuLu Financial Holdings’ head of business transformation Joseph Cleetus describes how the company found a solution in Aerotruth, sharing “Aerotruth has made that process possible, and we look forward to being a part of the Aerotruth ecosystem.”
It’s the same story for Samsara Remit, with the company’s head of business development Suraj Chhetri describing how it “wanted to move away from the manual process of onboarding our global partners” while going on to complement how the platform is “very easy to use” and “gives our partners a digital-first solution and smooth user experience when we invite them to the Aerotruth platform to submit due diligence documents.”

Implementation of mechanisms to boost financial inclusion and financial literacy remain stepping stones towards personal and business well-being and is a pre-requisite to meet several goals under the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, according to experts at the World Economic Forum 2022 (WEF 2022) in Davos, Switzerland.
Currently, more than half the world is yet to gain equitable access to finance and this remains one of the biggest challenges facing the world today, the state-run news agency Wam reported.
Need to boost access, digitisation, and personalisation
More than 1.1 billion people worldwide are still locked out of formal financial channels due to lack of a verifiable identity.
Adeeb Ahamed, the managing director of LuLu Financial Holdings, responded to this concern calling for improved access to connect the underprivileged with prudent products.
The UAE’s Wage Protection Scheme – which is a mandatory electronic salary transfer system legal requirement in the UAE for businesses registered under the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation – not only provides financial access, but also enhances digitisation, and improves the traceability of consumer spending.
Ahamed added that this is important to complement awareness about products suited to the needs of the under-served. Ahamed also suggested that while digitisation has its inherent benefits, financial institutions should remember the emotional aspect at the grassroots level.
Accordingly, financial institutions need bring in a personalised touch to their services to ensure last-mile consumers are on-boarded efficiently.
Gelsomina Vigliotti, the vice president of the European Investment Bank – which works with several developing economies on grassroots level projects – further mentioned that access to finance should come with adequate skill training & development so that the money is utilised properly.
Merely gaining financial access doesn’t guarantee growth but having a strong business case to deploy it makes the difference, she added.
Need to boost financial literacy
Addressing the need for better financial inclusion, Queen Máxima of the Netherlands opened a session at WEF 2022 saying that public and private stakeholders have to fully understand the purpose of financial inclusion and evaluate how it can result in better financial health of an individual.
Research studies have shown a significant correlation between financial inclusion and financial education. In fact, developing countries today report a financial literacy level of as low as 30 percent compared to the average of 60 percent in developed economies.
Karabo Morule, the founder of Capital Art in South Africa, stated that financial literacy is essential to drive better access to finance, adding that it would encourage people – even among the underprivileged and marginal groups – to invest.
Andre Soelistyo of GoTo Indonesia asked for greater public-private involvement to drive down the cost of moving money to zero. According to him, this is necessary to build sustainable solutions that can get people to utilise financial products suited to their well-being.
Addressing concerns around cyber fraud
Central to this point of digitisation, the conversation also touched upon various aspects of cyber fraud, especially with digital newbies having little awareness of the security involved.
Globally, cybercrime is up by 600 percent as more people move online, with 67 percent of financial institutions reporting an increase in cyber-attacks over the past year.
Against this backdrop, François Villeroy de Galhau, the governor of the Bank of France, admitted that while this is a concern, there should not be a trade-off between digitisation and regulation in the march towards greater financial inclusion. He expected stakeholders to work together so that both grow in tandem with the demand.
He was also vocal about the need to bring in gamification elements into financial literacy campaigns, suggesting strongly that financial literacy cannot be done in isolation.

Financial inclusion remains the first step towards personal and business well-being and is a pre-requisite to meet several goals under the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Despite this, over half the world is yet to gain equitable access to finance and this remains one of the biggest challenges facing the world today.
The World Economic Forum, which is driving forward the agenda of stakeholder capitalism, has consistently focused on financial inclusion and the role it plays in helping communities thrive.
This all-important topic was a subject of discussion on the second day of the ongoing WEF at Davos, with several global stakeholders convening to discuss this issue.
Queen Máxima of the Netherlands opened the session raising a question on the need for public and private stakeholders to fully understand the purpose of financial inclusion and evaluate how it can result in better financial health of an individual.
Karabo Morule of Capital Art, South Africa, brought up the subject of financial literacy as a key element of driving better use of access to finance. Her call for financial literacy finds relevance in various research studies which show a significant correlation between financial inclusion and financial education. In fact, developing countries today report a financial literacy level of as low as 30% compared to the average of 60% in developed economies.
Against this background, Morule spoke of how financial literacy would encourage people to invest in insurance, especially among the underprivileged and marginal groups.
Her thoughts on connecting the underprivileged with prudent products was echoed by Adeeb Ahamed, whose company, LuLu Financial Holdings, is involved in the cross-border remittances and micro-loans segment.
With over 1.1bn people worldwide locked out of formal financial channels due to lack of a verifiable identity, Adeeb Ahamed took the examples of India’s Aadhar scheme and UAE’s Wage Protection Scheme to drive home the need for better traceability of consumer spending.
According to him, this is important to complement awareness about products suited to the needs of the under-served. Adeeb also suggested that while digitisation has its inherent benefits, financial institutions should remember the emotional aspect at the grassroots level and accordingly bring in a personalised touch to their services to ensure last-mile consumers are onboarded efficiently.
Gelsomina Vigliotti of the European Investment Bank, which works with several developing economies on grassroots level projects, further mentioned that access to finance should come with adequate skill training and development so that the money is utilised properly.
Merely gaining financial access doesn’t guarantee growth but having a strong business case to deploy it makes the difference, she added.
Andre Soelistyo of GoTo Indonesia asked for greater public-private involvement to drive down the cost of moving money to zero. According to him, this is necessary to build sustainable solutions that can get people to utilise financial products suited to their well-being. He spoke of how his company was able to leverage the potential of digital solutions during the pandemic to onboard millions of motorbike riders in Indonesia, thereby giving them access to the market opportunity.
Central to this point of digitisation, the conversation also touched upon various aspects of cyber fraud, especially with digital newbies having little awareness of the security involved. Globally, cybercrime is up by 600% as more people move online, with 67% of financial institutions reporting an increase in cyber-attacks over the past year.
Against this backdrop, François Villeroy de Galhau, Governor of the Bank of France, admitted that while this is a concern, there should not be a trade-off between digitisation and regulation in the march towards greater financial inclusion. He expected stakeholders to work together so that both grow in tandem with the demand.
He was also vocal about the need to bring in gamification elements into financial literacy campaigns, suggesting strongly that financial literacy cannot be done in isolation.
The conversation, which was moderated by Faisal Islam, Economics Editor, BBC, also touched upon several successful case studies from developing economies such as the UAE, India, Bangladesh, Indonesia and South Africa among others.

While at the World Economic Forum this week, I’ve been part of conversations calling for greater government intervention in achieving financial inclusion. Two years into this decade of rampant digitization, I have to admit that governments have actually been quite proactive in easing regulations and enabling a favorable environment for businesses to thrive.
The inevitable question arises: What more can private stakeholders do then to ensure equitable access to finance? Financial inclusion is not merely onboarding the underserved to formal banking channels, but ensuring easier access to finance whenever one needs and having the necessary skills and knowledge to multiply it for further wellbeing. In this regard, let’s for a moment step back and consider the first and most challenging step for financial inclusion today: lack of verifiable identity.
According to the World Bank, more than 1.1 billion people globally live without an identity proof. In South Asia alone, 32 per cent of the population (approximately 350 million people) do not have an official identity. In sub-Saharan Africa, 46 per cent of the population (approximately 500 million people) do not have an official identity.
Without verifiable identities, financial institutions cannot onboard these populations. An individual’s verifiable identity thus becomes a critical factor to get them even remotely close to formal financial channels. There are developing nations that have successfully achieved this: the UAE’s Emirates ID and India’s Aadhar scheme are perfect examples.
Fintechs can help out
Until these regulated identities are more widespread, there is the availability of social data being used by fintechs and NBFCs which need to be explored further. This alternative data uses a risk-based KYC approach, or to put it simply a ‘Know Your Customer Better’ approach.
In this process, some basic information is collected from the customer, and they are given access to smaller funds at first. As their credit score improves, more information is collected, and the lending amount is gradually increased. This is the model of microfinance, which has been a life-saver in many developing economies.
Standardizing this alternate data across different jurisdictions is what is important in today’s age, to ensure uniformity of assessment and identification of the underserved. For ultimately, getting the underserved into formal banking channels requires that they have access to finance.
Banks can lend a hand
Which brings us to how legacy institutions can tap into this data to realize financial inclusion. This is where the private-private collaboration comes into play.
Larger banks have their own due diligence and processes to follow, but by partnering with regional fintechs and NBFCs in some economies, banks get to tap the grassroots without taking on the risk entirely.
Banks bring with them capital, infrastructure and expertise. Regional institutions bring with them a pulse of the people with their localized/on-ground expertise. For example, in India, it’s nearly impossible for the larger banks to reach the remotest corners of the country. The regional NBFCs, as well as some of the new-age fintechs and banking correspondents though, have a good reach among the grassroots.
Greater partnership between these private stakeholders of the financial services ecosystem will ultimately lead to faster penetration of quality services in a regulated manner. When the private sector converges thus, government intervention can be reserved to the core areas, without either having to do a trade-off on the pace of digital inclusion.
Financial inclusion today defines the state of an economy. Governments are active participants in improving regulations, conducting financial literacy programmes, upgrading infrastructure and what not. If the vision remains to make people’s lives better, then it is the private sector’s responsibility to band together and conjoin the pieces of the puzzle.

Abdul Gani, a resident of the UAE who hails from the town of Drobo in Ghana and a mechanic at Al Khaleej Automobiles in Muweilah, Sharjah, is now the proud owner of a brand-new Tesla Model 3 car. Gani won the car as a part of the mega draw of LuLu Exchange’s ‘Send Smart Win Smart’ contest. Gani, who initially came to the UAE in 2019 had to return to Ghana that year itself, due to a lack of better opportunities. He got second-time lucky upon returning in March 2021 and eventually found a job with his present employer. A regular customer of LuLu Exchange, Gani conducted eight transactions during the campaign period from September 1 to December 31, 2021. The draw was open to all customers in the UAE who transacted either via the company’s branches or its digital offering, LuLu Money. Gani leads a pack of 1000 other winners who won various gifts including up to two kg gold and gift vouchers worth Dh250,000, in the four months. Commenting on the successful conduct of the campaign, Thampi Sudarsanan, AVP of LuLu International Exchange, said: “We are thrilled to have been able to recognise 1000 winners from different nationalities in the UAE. We convey our warmest congratulations to the winner. I am sure this would change his life for the better.”
“We assure you to return with the bigger rewards in 2022 while continuing to strengthen the quality of our services and offerings for the benefit of our trusted consumers,” Sudarsanan concluded.
The full list of winners of the Send Smart Win Smart campaign for 2021 can be found on this link: https://luluexchange.com/ssws21/

As part of its efforts to bring new perspective to its economic vision for the UAE, the UAE International Investors Council (IIC) has announced the nomination of Adeeb Ahamed, Managing Director of Abu Dhabi based LuLu Financial Holdings (LFH), as an Independent Member of the Emirates Board of Directors for Overseas Investors.
Founded in 2009, the IIC comes under the ambit of the Ministry of Economy, with Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri, UAE Minister of Economy, as its Chairman. The Council was formed with a vision to act as a link between UAE international investors and the government to enhance competitiveness of UAE international investments and to overcome all types of challenges.
Speaking about his nomination, Ahamed says, “I am honoured to be chosen to play a key role in the UAE’s economic development. The UAE has shown amazing resilience and innovative governance during the time of the pandemic and new perspectives will help to reinforce the country’s foreign investment outlook. As a proud resident of the UAE, it is my privilege to contribute to the development of this nation and I look forward to working with fellow members of the IIC.”
Ahamed, who also helms the hospitality investment company Twenty14 Holdings, brings to his appointment considerable global and regional advisory experience. He is a member of the Advisory Boards of the Al Maryah Community Bank UAE, the Regional Strategy Group of the World Economic Forum and the World Tourism Forum, Lucerne.
His financial services company operates a network of over 245 physical branches across 11 countries, including 83 branches of LuLu Exchange in the UAE and the digital payments product, LuLu Money.

LuLu International Exchange has inked an agreement with NSDC International, a newly formed subsidiary of National Skill Development Corporation of India, for the latter’s Project Tejas (Training for Emirates Jobs and Skills), at a ceremony held in Dubai on Sunday.
Attended by senior government officials and business leaders, including Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister for IT & Skill Development & Entrepreneurship; Anurag Thakur, Minister of Sports, Youth Affairs and Information and Broadcasting; and Aman Puri, Council General of India; Project Tejas aims to provide high-quality skills as per global standards, to enable certified workers to work in UAE and GCC countries.
Launched in line with the Skill India Mission, Project Tejas will help boost international mobility of the skilled Indian workforce, with a target to train, certify and place 10,000 Indian workers and professionals internationally.
LuLu Exchange, which is among the leading cross-border remittances and foreign exchange companies in the UAE, has committed to ensure that skilled Indians get placed across its network of 83 branches in the country, in frontline consumer-facing positions.
Speaking on the sidelines of the signing ceremony, Thampi Sudarsanan, AVP, LuLu Exchange, said access to industry-ready human resources is going to be a challenge in a highly digitised world, and NSDC International’s efforts to upskill professionals is a step in the right direction.
“We are proud to partner with this innovative project that will help skilled Indians find a job worthy of their education and training in the UAE. The UAE is fast emerging as a financial services hub for the GCC and larger Mena region. Making available qualified professionals augurs well for the growth of the payments ecosystem here and will surely enable existing & new companies to grow strongly,” he said.
At the launch event, NSDC International recognised workers trained through the program and deployed in the UAE, who are presently working in diverse sectors such as construction, facility management, healthcare, hospitality, automotive, IT, banking and financial services.