Mobile Money Accounts in Ethiopia Climb High to Nearly 60 Million - Shega (2024)

FAQs

How many mobile money users are there in Ethiopia? ›

Mobile money accounts in Ethiopia have seen a significant increase, reaching close to 60 million subscribers, according to data released by the National Bank of Ethiopia. This figure represents more than a two-fold increase between December 2021 and 2022, indicating a sweeping trend in the country's banking habits.

The result of the study indicated that, the major barriers Ethiopian banking industry faces in the adoption of Electronic banking are, security risk, lack of trust, lack of legal and regulatory frame work, lack of ICT infrastructure and absence of competition between local and foreign banks.

Recently, Ethio Telecom, the state-owned mobile operator and the only MNO in the market until 2022, launched a mobile money service, telebirr. The MNO Safaricom entered the Ethiopian market in September 2022 and received its mobile money licence in May 2023.

The result suggests that relative advantage, ease of use, usefulness, attitude, trust, risk/security, and cost are factors that affect mobile payment adoption positively and significantly.

Ethiopia's oil magnate, and one of Africa's richest men, Mohammed Al Amoudi, has experienced a remarkable surge in his net worth, reaching $8.5 billion, marking a 61.9% increase in just 30 days.

Accordingly, residents entering or leaving Ethiopia may hold up to a maximum of 3000 ETB per trip. However, individuals traveling to Djibouti are allowed a higher limit of 10,000 ETB.

The transfer limit to your own CBE Birr account is 30,000 birr per transaction, and the transfer limit to other CBE Birr accounts is 10,000 birr per transaction. The transfer limit to other banks is 25,000 birr per transaction, with a daily limit of 100,000 birr.

Mobile money is an electronic wallet service. This is available in many countries and allows users to store, send, and receive money using their mobile phone. The safe and easy electronic payments make Mobile money a popular alternative to bank accounts.

Most of the remittance companies today offer bank to bank transfers for sending money to USA from Ethiopia. They do this by letting you fund your transaction through your local bank account in Ethiopia, and by allowing you to choose the payout to be your recipient's bank account in USA.

With about 126.5 million people (2023), Ethiopia is the second most populous nation in Africa after Nigeria, and one of the fastest-growing economies in the region, with an estimated 7.2% growth in FY2022/23. However, it also remains one of the poorest, with a per capita gross national income of $1,020.

What are the factors affecting mobile money? ›

The validity of the items used in this study was established by using confirmatory factor analysis. Results showed that the adoption of mobile money service is influenced by Perceived ease of use, Perceived usefulness, Perceived cost, and Perceived network quality.

Ethiopia's economy is based on agriculture, which accounts for 46% of GDP and 85% of total employment.

In 2022, there were a reported 71.4 million mobile cellular subscriptions in Ethiopia.

The latest value from 2022 is 69.12 million subscribers. For comparison, the world average in 2022 based on 157 countries is 52.98 million subscribers. See the global rankings for that indicator or use the country comparator to compare trends over time.

Subscribers to Telebirr, launched in May 2021, grew to 41 million of its 74.6 million total subscribers, Frehiwot said, while handling transactions worth 910.7 billion birr.

Ethio Telecom provided services for 64.51 million mobile voice subscribers in the year to July 7 2022, an increase of over 10 million on the previous year. The state-owned company is the sole provider of mobile services in Ethiopia.