# Cash Mobile > Source: https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/SY/cash-mobile > research date 2026-10-19 · extracted at 2026-10-20 > Publisher: Barcoder — encyclopedia of QR, barcode and payment-code standards In Syria, "MTN Pay" means **Cash Mobile** (كاش موبايل), the e-payment wallet of MTN Syria, often called MTN Cash. Any MTN Syria number can open one by dialling `*2021#` with a national ID number, or in the Cash Mobile app (`*1900#`). You then send money to other MTN users, pay merchants and pay bills and government fees. It launched on **24 May 2021**, alongside Syriatel's wallet. The daily cap is **5,500 new Syrian pounds** (550,000 old). Despite the name, MTN Syria is no longer run by South Africa's MTN Group, which lost control of it in 2021. | | | |---|---| | **Country** | Syria (`SY`) | | **What it is** | MTN Syria's e-payment wallet ("Cash Mobile"), with personal and merchant accounts | | **Banks or providers** | MTN Syria; merchants must hold a bank account [[1]](https://mtnsyr.com/Website/app-details/5) | | **Since** | 24 May 2021, launched by the Ministry of Communications and the telecom regulator [[2]](https://www.syriatel.sy/page/cash) | | **Cost** | Not published on MTN's page | | **Typical limit** | 550,000 SYP (5,500 new SYP) a day for payments and transfers [[1]](https://mtnsyr.com/Website/app-details/5) | | **Reaches** | MTN accounts only: "all transfers must be between MTN accounts" [[1]](https://mtnsyr.com/Website/app-details/5) | | **Code on paper?** | Not on MTN's page. Merchants may show a wallet QR image; MTN documents no QR format | ## How Cash Mobile came to Syria **MTN Syria** began in 1999 as Spacetel Syria, became Areeba and then 94 Areeba, and took the MTN name in 2007 after MTN Group bought Areeba [[3]](https://resources.telegeography.com/how-mtn-hung-up-on-the-middle-east). In August 2020 MTN Group agreed to sell its 75 % stake to the minority shareholder TeleInvest for $65 million, but the sale fell apart. In **February 2021** a Damascus court placed MTN Syria under judicial guardianship over alleged licence violations and appointed TeleInvest's chairman as guardian. The ruling became final on 9 March 2021, and by August 2021 MTN Group had confirmed it would exit Syria [[3]](https://resources.telegeography.com/how-mtn-hung-up-on-the-middle-east). The operator still trades as MTN at mtnsyr.com, and its wallet is its own product, not MTN Group's MoMo. The wallet itself came three months later. The Ministry of Communications and Technology and the telecom and post regulator launched electronic payment services through **Syriatel and MTN** on **24 May 2021**, at the Dama Rose hotel in Damascus [[2]](https://www.syriatel.sy/page/cash). Syriatel's half is [Syriatel Cash](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/SY/syriatel-cash). MTN Syria publishes no user or transaction figures for Cash Mobile, and we found no source for any market-share figure, so treat one you see elsewhere as unconfirmed. ## How to use it From MTN Syria's Cash Mobile page (read 19 Oct 2026) [[1]](https://mtnsyr.com/Website/app-details/5): - **Open a personal account** (حساب مشترك). An e-account belongs to an MTN subscriber and is tied to their name, **national ID number** and mobile number. - By USSD: dial `*2021#`, choose "register a new account", enter your national ID number and the confirmation code. An SMS confirms it. - In the **Cash Mobile app**: enter your first name, surname, national ID number, mobile number and a PIN. Get the app by dialling `*1900#` (Android, or a web app for iPhone), or register on the Cash Mobile website. - **Load money** at MTN centres or at the distributor shops listed in the app. Dial `*741#` to find the nearest one. - **Use it** to send money to another subscriber, pay a merchant account, pay MTN bills and prepaid top-ups, pay bills and government fees, look up and pay internet providers, and donate to charities. - **Confirm** every operation chosen from the menu with a confirmation code. Three wrong passwords lock the account until the next day. - **Receive.** A personal account can also receive money sent from another number. **Merchants.** A merchant (حساب تاجر) is "a natural person who holds a bank account" and receives payments from subscribers. You register through MTN's merchant link, the merchant app (كاش تاجر) or an MTN centre. A merchant may hold at most two accounts: one commercial account to receive payments and one personal account to pay from [[1]](https://mtnsyr.com/Website/app-details/5). ## Limits and fees | | MTN Cash Mobile (read 19 Oct 2026) [[1]](https://mtnsyr.com/Website/app-details/5) | |---|---| | Personal account, payments and transfers | 550,000 SYP a day, given as **5,500 new SYP** | | Merchant holding both accounts | "Maximum daily trading" of 50,000 new SYP (the page doesn't say which account it applies to) | | Merchant's commercial account | No limit on what it receives in a day or holds | | Accounts per subscriber | One | | Wrong password | 3 tries, then locked until the next day | | Fees | Not listed | MTN Syria now shows its prices in old and new pounds side by side, at 100 old to 1 new: for example a 600-pound service is 6 new pounds [[4]](https://mtnsyr.com/Website/products/payment/62). Limits change; check MTN Syria's current terms. ## Paying shops and businesses A shop needs a merchant account and a bank account. Customers pay it from the menu or the app, and the merchant's account has no cap on receipts [[1]](https://mtnsyr.com/Website/app-details/5). MTN publishes no merchant count. Online, a WooCommerce plugin from July 2026 lets Syrian web shops take MTN Cash, Syriatel Cash and Sham Cash. The shop shows its wallet ID and a QR image and confirms each payment by hand [[5]](https://wordpress.org/plugins/syrian-payment-gateways-for-woocommerce/). ## Paying across borders Not possible with Cash Mobile. MTN states that all transfers must be between MTN accounts [[1]](https://mtnsyr.com/Website/app-details/5), so it doesn't even reach Syriatel Cash users, let alone accounts abroad. Since MTN Group's exit, the wallet is also outside MTN Group's MoMo network and its cross-border corridors [[3]](https://resources.telegeography.com/how-mtn-hung-up-on-the-middle-east). What is changing is Syria's links to the outside world. The US ended its comprehensive sanctions in **July 2025** while keeping targeted ones, and later removed Syria from its list of state sponsors of terrorism. Visa and Mastercard reported the first international card payments in over 15 years in **August 2026** [[6]](https://gulfnews.com/business/banking/syria-now-offers-international-card-payments-as-financial-system-reconnects-1.500653895). In August 2026 the Central Bank of Syria adopted a licensing system for payment and e-money providers. It said the system does not mean immediate international transfers [[7]](https://www.almodon.com/economy/2026/08/19/%D8%B3%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A7-%D8%AA%D8%B9%D8%AA%D9%85%D8%AF-%D9%86%D8%B8%D8%A7%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF%D9%81%D8%B9-%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AA%D8%AD%D9%88%D9%84-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A5%D9%84%D9%83%D8%AA%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%86%D9%8A). ## Is there an MTN Cash QR code in Syria? MTN's Cash Mobile page doesn't mention a QR code. It describes paying by subscriber or merchant account, confirmed with a code [[1]](https://mtnsyr.com/Website/app-details/5). Merchants do display wallet QR images, at least online: the WooCommerce plugin asks MTN Cash merchants to upload one [[5]](https://wordpress.org/plugins/syrian-payment-gateways-for-woocommerce/). But MTN publishes no format, so we can't say what such a code contains or whether another app reads it. Syriatel documents an in-app QR for amounts ([Syriatel Cash](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/SY/syriatel-cash)). The [MTN Pay standard page](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/mtn-pay) describes MTN Group's MoMo Pay merchant QR, used in countries such as Cameroon. That product is not MTN Syria's: the Syrian operator left MTN Group in 2021 [[3]](https://resources.telegeography.com/how-mtn-hung-up-on-the-middle-east). Syria has no national payment QR standard yet; Visa's roadmap with the central bank mentions QR acceptance for merchants (see the [(SY report)](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/SY)) [[8]](https://km.visamiddleeast.com/en_KM/about-visa/newsroom/press-releases/prl-04122025.html). Bills in Syria are paid through the wallet's bill menu, not by scanning a code on the bill [[1]](https://mtnsyr.com/Website/app-details/5). ## Safety: confirmation codes and lockouts MTN's built-in protections are a **confirmation code on every menu operation** and a **lock after three wrong passwords** [[1]](https://mtnsyr.com/Website/app-details/5). We found no MTN Syria fraud warning. For Syria's other big wallet, Sham Cash, its team has warned of fake "technical support" groups on social media that ask for login details and then take over and blackmail accounts (May 2025) [[9]](https://www.aljazeera.net/ebusiness/2025/5/13/%d8%b4%d8%a7%d9%85-%d9%83%d8%a7%d8%b4-%d8%a8%d9%8a%d9%86-%d9%88%d8%b9%d9%88%d8%af-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b1%d9%82%d9%85%d9%86%d8%a9-%d9%88%d9%85%d8%b9%d8%a7%d9%86%d8%a7%d8%a9). - **The confirmation code is yours alone.** Anyone asking for it, by phone or on social media, is trying to move your money. - **Check the merchant account** before confirming; a transfer between MTN accounts is hard to undo. - **Use MTN's own channels**: `*2021#`, the Cash Mobile app or an MTN centre (`*741#` finds one) [[1]](https://mtnsyr.com/Website/app-details/5). ## Cash Mobile and the alternatives in Syria | Way to pay | Best for | Notes | |---|---|---| | **MTN Cash Mobile** | MTN customers: transfers, merchants, bills, fees | 5,500 new SYP a day; MTN accounts only [[1]](https://mtnsyr.com/Website/app-details/5) | | **[Syriatel Cash](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/SY/syriatel-cash)** | Syriatel customers | Same daily figure; Syriatel accounts only | | **Sham Cash** | Public-sector salaries, transfers | Salary channel from May 2025; linked to Bank of Sham in Idlib [[9]](https://www.aljazeera.net/ebusiness/2025/5/13/%d8%b4%d8%a7%d9%85-%d9%83%d8%a7%d8%b4-%d8%a8%d9%8a%d9%86-%d9%88%d8%b9%d9%88%d8%af-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b1%d9%82%d9%85%d9%86%d8%a9-%d9%88%d9%85%d8%b9%d8%a7%d9%86%d8%a7%d8%a9); agents' cash-out fees vary [[10]](https://www.syria.tv/%D8%B4%D8%A7%D9%85-%D9%83%D8%A7%D8%B4-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%B3%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A7-%D9%87%D9%84-%D9%83%D8%B3%D8%A8-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AA%D8%B7%D8%A8%D9%8A%D9%82-%D8%AB%D9%82%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%AE%D8%AF%D9%85%D9%8A%D9%86%D8%9F) | | **QR and card payments** | Visitors, larger shops | First international card payments Aug 2026; see the [(SY report)](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/SY) | | **Cash** | Most payments | Dominant, per the [(SY report)](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/SY) | ## Sources 1. MTN Syria, "Cash Mobile", read 19 Oct 2026. 2. Syriatel, "كاش" (launch notice of electronic payment services), read 19 Oct 2026. 3. TeleGeography, "How MTN Hung Up on the Middle East", 7 Sep 2022. 4. MTN Syria, "الدفع وإعادة التعبئة" (price list in old and new pounds), read 19 Oct 2026. 5. WordPress.org, "Syrian Payment Gateways for WooCommerce", updated 20 Jul 2026. 6. Gulf News, "Syria now offers international card payments as financial system reconnects", 27 Aug 2026. 7. Al Modon, "سوريا تعتمد نظام الدفع والتحول الإلكتروني", 19 Aug 2026. 8. Visa, "Visa and Central Bank of Syria agree on strategic roadmap to build digital payments ecosystem and drive financial inclusion", 4 Dec 2025. 9. Al Jazeera, "«شام كاش» في سوريا.. هل خفف التطبيق الأعباء أم زادها؟", 13 May 2025. 10. Syria TV, "شام كاش في سوريا.. هل كسب التطبيق ثقة المستخدمين؟", 10 Jul 2026. *Researched 19 October 2026. Limits and bank offerings change; the banks' own pages are authoritative.*