Telecom

Ethiopia: Safaricom completes preparations for M-Pesa mobile money service

Monday, 20 February 2023 16:16
Ethiopia: Safaricom completes preparations for M-Pesa mobile money service

(Ecofin Agency) - Safaricom officially launched in Ethiopia in October last year. However, the company does not yet offer mobile money services in the country, as the telecom license it acquired in July 2021 does not cover digital payments.

Telecom operator Safaricom is finalizing technical and commercial preparations for its M-Pesa digital payment service in the Ethiopian market, Anwar Soussa, chief executive officer of Safaricom Telecommunications Ethiopia (STE), said recently. The service is expected to be launched in the next financial year, which begins in April, we learn.

The announcement comes four months after Safaricom Ethiopia was approved to operate its mobile payment platform in Ethiopia. The approval from Addis Ababa allowed the operator to begin the process of obtaining a mobile payment service provider license from the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE), which recently set a licensing fee of $150 million for mobile money services.

The launch of M-Pesa is expected to accelerate Safaricom's growth and introduce competition to Ethiopia's mobile money sector, which is currently dominated by incumbent operator Ethio Telecom's Telebirr service (Launched in May 2021, the platform attracted four million users in a matter of weeks and currently has more than 28.2 million users).

"Our growth trajectory is even more exciting for us as we look forward to offering financial services through M-PESA. [...] With a population of approximately 120 million people and financial inclusion at about 35%, 57% mobile penetration, and annual inward remittance of about $4.2 billion, Ethiopia offers a great opportunity to grow the business to the Kenyan level in 10 years," said Anwar Soussa.

Isaac K. Kassouwi





 
Finance


 
Public Management


Ecofin Agency covers the news from 9 business sectors in Africa: Public management, Finance, ICT, Agribusiness, Electricity, Mining, Oil and Gas, Comms and Laws. Ecofin Agency is also creating and management specialized medias, in paper and on the web/social networks, for institutions or African publishers.

AGENCE ECOFIN

Mediamania Sarl
Rue du Léman, 6
1201 Genève
Tél: +41 22 301 96 11

REDACTION
redaction@agenceecofin.com

Public management
Aaron AKINOCHO
Borgia KOBRI
Moutiou ADJIBI

Finance
Idriss LINGE
Walid KEFI
Chamberline MOKO

Agribusiness
Espoir OLODO

Electricity
Gwladys JOHNSON

Oil and Gas
Olivier DE SOUZA

Mining
Louis-Nino KANSOUN

ITC 
Muriel EDJO

Comms
Servan AHOUGNON

Cameroon
Brice R. MBODIAM
Sylvain ANDZONGO
Monique MAY
Julienne Rose SENDE

Togo
Fiacre E. KAKPO
Waliyullah TAJUDEEN
Séna AKODA

Niger
Sandrine GAINGNE

Gabon
Stephane BILLE
Pierre-Celestin ATANGANA

Desk
Stéphane ALIDJINOU
Souha TOURE
Vahid CODJIA
Diane ZODEHOUGAN
Hikmatu BILALI

Translation
Schadrac AKINOCHO
Mouka MEZONLIN
Firmine AÏZAN



Digital
Omar SOKHNA
Mamadou DIOP
Bacary MANE
Abdel Razak MOULIOM

Digital Marketing
Jérémie FLAUX
Geraud ACHI
Jean Christian BERNARD
Franck FOUTE

Web publishing
Bakoly RAHARISOA
Rina RAMANANDRAISOA
Hasina RAJEMISON

Development
Dominique FLAUX

 


 
REGIE COMMERCIALE
AGENCE ECOFIN
Rue du Léman, 6
1201 Genève
Tél: +41 22 301 96 11
Fax: +41 22 301 96 10

Benjamin FLAUX
bf@agenceecofin.com 
Tél: +41 22 301 96 11 
Mob: +41 78 699 13 72

Voir page 
Nos services
 

 










 



Ecofin Agency is a news agency for economic and sectorial information. It was created in 2010 and it website was launched in June 2011.

Please publish modules in offcanvas position.