A store selling mobile phones sits beneath two advertisments for Samsung Electronics Co. smartphones in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2015. Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty Images
After AFI member institution National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) finalized their guidelines on mobile and agent banking they continued to support the sector by encouraging the use of digital financial services by conducting a workshop in December 2014 entitled “How to Operationalize Digital Financial Service: Mobile and Agent Banking within the Ethiopian Context.”
The workshop brought together policymakers, financial institutions, government stakeholders and development partners to establish a shared understanding among stakeholders driving financial inclusion in Ethiopia. Moreover, the workshop was facilitated by international experts drawn from different parts of the world having specific subject matter expertise in demand, distribution, technology and regulatory aspect of digital financial services.
Around the same time, several Ethiopian banks and microfinance institutions launched mobile enabled e-money services in 2014, which are predicted to rapidly bring financial services to millions of Ethiopians in the next few years.
For updates on the progress in Ethiopia, click here.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Efoé Koudadjey is the Regional Coordinator of Sub-Saharan Africa/MENA at AFI. John Owens is the Senior Policy Advisor Digital Financial Services & FI Policies at AFI.
