03 November 2023

The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) has issued a new directive on the issuance of payment instruments for mobile money providers in the country. The measure aims to promote security, stimulate competition and innovation among Ethiopia’s different mobile money service providers.

The new directive increases the daily electronic account balance limit from 30,000 birr to 75,000 birr and introduces a new daily aggregate transaction limit of 150,000 birr. Exempt from transaction limits are utilities, taxes, airline tickets, fuel, and mass payments. In addition, the directive allows banks to establish subsidiaries specializing in the provision of mobile money services.

According to the NBE, the revision of the directive is part of its ongoing efforts to modernize the financial sector in line with the National Digital Payment Strategy (2021-2024). The central bank recently amended the payments law to allow foreign investors to offer mobile money services in the Ethiopian telecoms market. This allowed Safaricom to launch its M-Pesa digital payment service in Ethiopia to compete with incumbent operator Ethio Telecom’s Telebirr service.