The ePay service supplied by Smart Dubai Government Establishment (SDG) has bagged the 21st Middle East Smart Government and Smart Cities Excellence Award in the category of 'Smart ePayment Gateway Excellence Award', which is organized by the Middle East Excellence Awards Institute to recognize the tactical function played by government establishments, equal the futuristic patterns for thorough transformation to smart government and governance systems and fulfill the vision of government facilities for adopting a sustainable global excellence strategy.

The ePay service, which enables specific and business consumers to electronically pay the costs of government services offered by the taking part government entities round the clock from anywhere, was launched in 2003, while the 5th generation of the service was introduced in 2014.

H.E. Wesam Al Abbas Lootah, CEO of SDG, said: "We are operating in collaboration with our tactical partners in a number of government and private entities in Dubai to form an integrated team and combine efforts for employing the modern-day innovation-based ideas and anticipating the future with the objective of offering innovative smart solutions and hence achieving sustainable happiness for the society."

Revealing pleasure at SDG winning this award, Lootah stated the award reflects SDG's endeavor to satisfy its vision of making Dubai the happiest and smartest city on earth and its objective of accomplishing joy through the provision of world-class smart services and infrastructures for Dubai residents and visitors with the aim of supporting the emirate's thorough development plans through keeping pace with the ingenious innovations and strategies and applying the best worldwide practices and requirements to bringing more joy to Dubai residents.

Lootah included: "The ePay gateway has actually added to creating huge revenues in terms of pressing federal government costs through investing in the technological infrastructure provided by one entity, SDG, to all Dubai government departments and entities on one hand and to people and businesses on the other."

He highlighted that SDG would continue to utilize its skills and high enablers, consisting of extremely advanced wise infrastructure, smart service systems and high-level technical assistance, many expertly to upgrade the efficiency of smart services and continue the process of creativity and innovation with a view to accomplishing Smart Dubai's objectives to making Dubai the most smartest and happiest city in the world.

Recent statistics announced by SDG revealed that the ePay service brought in more companies and people, rising by 29 percent in the quantities picked up in 2015 over those picked up in 2014 and by 28 per cent in the variety of transactions concluded through the service over the exact same duration.

The quantities gathered in favour of the participating entities reached around AED 9 billion by the end of December 2015 which were generated from 6,742,722 transactions compared with AED 7 billion in the exact same period the previous year through 5,260,125 deals.

As much as AED 3.6 billion was generated through 2,498,888 deals in between the beginning of January 2016 and the end of April 2016.

The PCI DSS-compliant ePay supplies a dependable and protected payment service of high performance in line with the world's best standards and contributes to relieving the lives of clients, making consumers happier and bringing about cost savings for clients and Dubai government entities. Customers utilizing the ePay service can pay the fees of their deals through numerous easy to use channels including the World Wide Web, IVR, self-service devices, smart devices, customer care centres and wearables.

Clients can inquire about the SDG's services and apps round the clock through SDG's call centre, which offers its services in both Arabic and English through several channels consisting of telephone on 600 560 000 or email on help@dsg.gov.ae.