As part of a larger economic reform package, Ethiopia’s central bank, the National Bank of Ethiopia, is seeking to increase mobile money usage in the country by issuing mobile money licenses to non-financial institutions. Banks and microfinance companies already offer financial services via mobile phones. To qualify for a license, a firm must be owned by “Ethiopian nationals or people of Ethiopian origin,” with no party holding more than 20 percent of the firm’s shares, other than the government. Additionally, the new mobile money provider must have paid-up capital of ETB 50 million (USD 1.6 million) stored in a blocked account.
Mobile money accounts will have transaction limits of ETB 8,000 (USD 240) per day and ETB 60,000 (USD 1,810) per month. In addition, the firms must establish a cap on account balances of ETB 5,000 (USD 150) to ETB 30,000 (USD 900).
By Ng Chee Meng, Research Associate
Sources and Additional Resources
Yahoo article
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ethiopia-opening-mobile-money-market-211639400.html
Bloomberg article
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-01/ethiopia-allows-telecoms-firms-to-provide-mobile-money-services
MicroCapital article on MTN Group
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-with-homeland-app-mtn-opens-remittance-channels-from-europe-to-africa-afghanistan-yemen/
Orange SA
https://www.orange.com/
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