There are 17 licensed payment service providers authorized by Iraq's Central Bank for payment acceptance, and together they've deployed a little over 13,000 POS card machines nationwide. That's real infrastructure, but it's small relative to the size of the market — which is exactly why most small businesses in Iraq are still cash-first, not card-first, and why software built for Gulf or Western markets often assumes a payment reality that doesn't match here.
The players
Qi Card is the largest name in Iraqi card payments, integrated with the national switch and global networks like Visa and Mastercard, and it also handles payroll distribution for government employees. Alongside card infrastructure, mobile money services — ZainCash, NassWallet, AsiaPay, FastPay — handle a meaningful share of digital payment volume, often for people and businesses that don't have a traditional card terminal at all.
What this means for how a small business should actually think about 'going digital'
- Cash isn't a legacy habit to eliminate — it's still the default for a real reason, and a POS system that assumes otherwise will frustrate both the business and its customers.
- When a business does want to accept cards or online payment, the fee structure matters more than the novelty — ask exactly what percentage is taken and by whom, per transaction.
- A system that works fine with zero card infrastructure, and adds card/online payment as an option rather than a requirement, fits the actual market better than one built card-first and translated into Arabic afterward.
What 'online ordering' actually costs when a card is involved
On TU2's restaurant Business tier, for example, a customer paying online by card costs 3% of the transaction, billed to the restaurant, plus IQD 150 per transaction, billed to the customer. Cash orders — still the majority for most venues — carry no fee at all. That split exists specifically because the alternative, a single higher flat price trying to cover card-processing costs across every order whether or not a card was actually used, would overcharge cash-paying customers to subsidize card ones.
The short version: build or buy for a cash-first market, let card and digital payment be the option layered on top, not the assumption everything is built around.