Tirana "saturated" with POS terminals - BoS: Small cities, such as Gjirokastra and Lushnja "outpace" the capital in their growth
A record number of businesses in small towns have been equipped with POS terminals during 2025, thus offering their customers, whether Albanians or foreign tourists, the opportunity to make card payments.
The latest data from the Bank of Albania shows a change in the trend of POSs in the country, from Tirana, which has always seen the largest increase in the number of POSs from year to year, as a result of the higher concentration of businesses in this region, to other smaller cities that are becoming aware of offering another way of making payments, besides cash.
Gjirokastra and Lushnja are the two regions with the biggest terminal "boom" in 2025. According to official statistics, 2919 new POSs were added in Gjirokastra, while in Lushnja around 1762. They are followed by Shkodra with 968 more POS terminals than in 2024.
This growth is due to tourists who want to avoid converting their money into lek or simply making cash payments and are looking for electronic payment channels. To meet the demands of tourists and also attract as many new customers as possible, businesses are realizing the necessity of having a POS terminal. Gjirokastra, for example, is among the most visited cities in the south of the country, so the growth is a reflection of this fact.
Given that Tirana has the largest number of terminals, the market is already "saturated" and their growth from 2024 to 2025 results in only 2.7%.
In order to reduce cash purchases, the appropriate payment infrastructure must first be provided, such as POS terminals in this case.
In this context, Albania aims to reduce POS terminal fees, in order to encourage businesses to use them, by reducing the cost of fees. Meanwhile, starting this year, every business will be required to have at least one POS terminal.
Also, in May of last year, Mastercard announced a program to distribute 4,750 free POS terminals to businesses for one year.
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