04 August 2023

Safaricom Ethiopia is expected to launch its M-Pesa mobile money service before the end of September.

Safaricom obtained an operating license for M-Pesa in May, some seven months after launching its commercial mobile services in Ethiopia. In return, the operator paid $150 million to the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE).

M-Pesa represents a strategic issue for Safaricom in the context of the development of its activities in the Ethiopian telecom market currently dominated by the incumbent operator Ethio Telecom. As of 30 June 2023, the Ethio Telecom had 72 million subscribers, including 34.3 million subscribers to the Telebirr mobile payment service launched in May 2021.