Kenyan and Ethiopian service provider Safaricom has extended its M-Pesa Global service – which enables M-Pesa registered customers to send and receive money globally – to Ethiopia, allowing customers to make mobile money transactions from Kenya to Ethiopia.
Through this expansion, the two companies say they aim to increase mobile money use and penetration across Ethiopia, boosting local economies as well as creating opportunities for individuals and businesses across the region.
Customers of M-Pesa Kenya can now make mobile money transfers to M-Pesa Ethiopia via the M-Pesa International Remittance. Through this collaboration, customers in both countries will only require their M-Pesa wallets.
Safaricom suggests that key beneficiaries of the latest development will include Ethiopians living and working in Kenya and Kenyans living and working in Ethiopia.
The context for this initiative appears to be a changing cimate for digital finance in Ethiopia. Elsa Muzzolini, Safaricom Ethiopia’s Chief Financial Services Officer, explains: “We are thrilled to work with M-Pesa Kenya especially at a time of foreign exchange policy reforms made by the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE)." These reforms, she notes, should encourage a growing number of Ethiopian diaspora and business owners to embrace digital payments to send money to their loved ones and fund their operations.
In addition to Ethiopia, M-Pesa customers can also send and receive money to and from over 190 countries.
This news comes as a reminder that Safaricom is continuing to pursue expansion in Ethiopia at a time when rival operator, state-owned Ethio Telecom, has been hogging the headlines with news of a planned partial sell-off.
Of course M-Pesa has long been a major part of Safaricom’s appeal, first in Kenya and now in Ethiopia where, according to the Connecting Africa news service, by May 2024 M-Pesa had 4.5 million total registered mobile money users. However, EthioTelecom remains the frontrunner and recently announced its intention to increase the user base of Telebirr, its mobile money platform, by 15.7%, reaching 55 million customers by the end of the fiscal year.