Safaricom’s mobile money service M-Pesa, has officially launched its operations in Ethiopia, three months after the telco received a license from the National Bank of Ethiopia. Safaricom Ethiopia said M-Pesa underwent a three-month pilot and testing phase where technical readiness was established, crucial partnerships with local banks were forged, and a network of M-Pesa agents was recruited, trained, and onboarded. With a population of 120 million people, Ethiopia is poised to fuel significant growth for the mobile money platform. Safaricom was the first private telecommunications provider to enter Ethiopia, a market dominated by the state-controlled Ethio Telecom. By July of this year, Ethio Telecom had already garnered more than 34 million subscribers for its mobile money service, Telebirr.

Source: Ethiopian News August 17, 2023 06:15 UTC