EthSwitchEthiopia’s national switch, which extended ATM interoperability to instant transfers and mobile money (Telebirr) in a market closed to foreign companies.EthSwitch S.C. (owned by the National Bank of Ethiopia and Ethiopian banks) · since 2016dedicated case study in AfricaNenda’s SIIPS 2025 report (2025)
Global registry · Africa & Middle East · East Africa
Ethiopia Payment systems
4 systems listed.
This country doesn’t have a written market analysis yet: e-commerce shares, regulator, and key players are still to be documented. The systems below, however, are verified.
Learn about this market. The guides and courses that cover it.
Payments in East AfricaPayments in Portuguese-speaking and southern AfricaMobile money in AfricaPayments in West and Southern AfricaPayments in the CEMAC zonePayments in the Gulf and the Middle EastAccepting payments in AfricaAccepting payments in Egypt and the MaghrebAccepting payments in the GulfCollecting payments in Kenya and East AfricaCollecting payments in Nigeria and West AfricaPayments in Africa: the continent that reinvented mobile money
Instant payments
EthSwitch / EthioPayThree systems in one: a national switch, an instant payment system (EthioPay, launched in December 2025 with same-day interbank settlement), and a domestic card scheme co-branded with the banks. A partnership with India’s NPCI for the infrastructure was signed in November 2023. It is profitable, which is rare for public payment infrastructure.EthSwitch S.C. (joint-stock company owned by all Ethiopian banks (public and private) and the National Bank of Ethiopia) · since 2011387 million interoperable transactions worth ETB 1,260 billion (about $8 billion) in fiscal 2025/26, including 242.6 million P2P transactions worth ETB 1,060 billion and 131.5 million ATM interoperability transactions worth ETB 189.2 billion; pretax profit of ETB 2.6 billion; a single-day peak of more than 1 million P2P transactions worth ETB 5.1 billion (EthSwitch, July 2026).
Mobile money
telebirrThe fastest growth ever seen for an African mobile money service, fueled by Ethio Telecom’s long-standing monopoly over 120 million people. M-Pesa Ethiopia (Safaricom) has competed with it since 2023. Caution: “registered users” are not active users, and the gap is probably large.Ethio Telecom (state-owned operator) · since 2021More than 54.8 million registered users in July 2025 (up 7.29 million over fiscal 2024/25) and ETB 2.38 trillion in transactions over the fiscal year (Ethio Telecom, 2025).
Other
EATS (Ethiopian Automated Transfer System)Ethiopia's RTGS, introduced in 2011 under the payment system modernization program and migrated to ISO 20022 on March 29, 2025. It runs only 10 hours a day, six days a week. Those limited hours are the structural reason 24/7 retail rails built on top of it (telebirr, EthSwitch) have become so important.National Bank of Ethiopia · since 2011More than 3.5 million transactions a year worth more than 5 trillion birr; 35 participating institutions (National Bank of Ethiopia, 2025).