The Statistics Centre - Abu Dhabi (SCAD) has signed an agreement with Mastercard to use Master Card SpendingPulse insights to better understand spending patterns across digital and in-person transactions from in-store and online retail sales across all forms of payment.

The agreement was signed by Dr. Haifa Ali Alhamdani, Acting Executive Director of Strategy and Planning Sector from SCAD side, and J.K. Khalil, Cluster General Manager, MENA East, Mastercard, on the sidelines of GITEX Global 2022 at the Dubai World Trade Centre.

The partnership will advance business-to-government data sharing, with Mastercard SpendingPulse providing insights on consumer spending and retail trends and behaviours to support the social and economic aspirations in Abu Dhabi.

Ahmed Mahmoud Fikri, Director-General of SCAD, said, “SCAD’s partnership with main players in the private sector is key to producing high-quality statistics and effectively supporting the leadership and decision-makers with actionable insights. Data held by a private sector entity is equally useful for the public and private sector when it is leveraged in partnership with a statistics organisation for the public good.”

“It’s insights like these that will be key to informing the development of policies and planning in Abu Dhabi’s government and private sectors," he added.

J.K. Khalil commented, “At Mastercard, we believe that collaborative efforts are the way to deliver truly sustainable and inclusive economic growth. Through data-driven efforts like this, SCAD can help identify previously untapped opportunities.”

SCAD is mandated to develop Abu Dhabi’s integrated ecosystem with standardised statistical methodologies and scientific foundations that maximise the use of digital government and smart services.

In this context, it adopts advanced cybersecurity frameworks to ensure proactive data security and continuity of both government-to-government and government-to-private sector data collaboration.