ADDIS ABABA – Ethiopia’s newly launched remittance campaign coupled with the revised foreign exchange policy, would benefit the banking industry and the country in general as it facilitate seamless foreign currency transaction, financial experts said.
Approached by The Ethiopian Herald, Awash Bank Senior Chief Marketing Officer, Yohannes Merga said that the country’s importers and financial institutions would benefit a lot if 40% of the foreign exchange transaction that had been done through informal ways begin to flow via banks.
As to him, the system that has been set under the DEBO remittance campaign provides a huge benefit to the society, which receives and sends foreign currency, for its lucrative and reliable financial services.
Accordingly, the new platform called Unite.et which prepared by the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE), as part of the remittance campaign, would facilitate the digital platform onboarding and banking services for millions of non-resident Ethiopians and persons of Ethiopian origin thereby engage in banking, payments, and investment activities in the country, he stated.
“Foreign currency exchange also helps the banks to increase revenues, facilitate transaction and so on,” Yohannes said, adding that the platform would raise the legal inflow of remittances and other foreign currencies send by the diaspora community.
Awash Bank is implementing such initiatives using its digital platform and integrated system to provide standard services, he expressed.
This step benefits Ethiopians living abroad and help them contribute to the economy through formal remittance channels, he noted.
The local banks have allocated a 100 billion Birr loan to encourage members of the diaspora community to invest in Ethiopia and offered competitive exchange rates to inspire them to use formal banking channels rather than black-market alternatives ,therefore, the banks would get share from foreign currency earnings, according to Yohannes.
Commercial Bank of Ethiopia Digital Banking Division, Dagmawit WoldeGabriel disclosed that her bank is implementing remittance transaction mechanisms dubbed, ethio direct and cash go to enable customers to transfer remittance from anywhere.
She said people can send starting from 5 USD and the bank would provide them with 16 and 15% incentives respectively if they send the money via ethio direct and cash go until September 30, 2024. Both mechanisms are secure, fast, accessible and convenient, she added.
“The Remittance Campaign can facilitate forex inflow, which is significant to develop financial inclusion, transparent exchange rate, promote legal transactions way and create conducive environment for banks,” Dagmawit said.
According to her, the campaign helps banks to get more foreign currency and enables citizens to citizens to send money from anywhere using just their cellphones.
It was last Thursday that NBE had launched DEBO, a large-scale remittance campaign to be implemented for six months to encourage Ethiopians living abroad send money in a legal way.
BY MISGANAW ASNAKE
The Ethiopian Herald September 8/2024
