After selling 2 kilograms of salted peanut for a sum of 400 birr, Abaynesh Girma, struggles to check whether the payment for the sale has been deposited to her Ebirr account, one of the most widely used digital payment apps in Dire Dawa city and the surrounding areas.
To make sure that she has received her payment, many customers have ask if she has received the money transferred to her account before leaving her vending place. She has to check from her phone and confirm. However, she still needs to get the support either of customers or nearby colleagues to find out if her payment is deposited.
For more than two decades Abaynesh has been selling grains in one of the market alleys of Dire Dawa, one of the largest cities and a commercial hub of the country. She still prefers cash payment for her sales because, as she believes, “I am too uneducated to use mobile payments”.
Yet she has to subscribe to one of the digital payment methods that are being widely used in her city lest she should lose potential market from the growing number of buyers who prefer to pay through mobile banking or mobile payments like Telebirr and Ebirr.
“These days the trade is exchanged that way,” said Abaynesh asked why she struggles to use digital payment apps if she has difficulties to use it.
“If I refuse to receive payments using the digital payment, many of the customers retract their interest to buy as many of them these days prefer to pay using their mobile phones,” says Abaynesh.
Governments, financial institutions, fintechs and other stakeholders promote digital payment systems or digital finance due to their advantages like substituting cash, introducing instant payments as well as encouraging financial inclusion, among others.
Despite the difficulties faced by elders and technologically challenged people like Abaynesh, many buyers and sellers are using the most common mobile or digital payment methods in the city like Ebirr. Therefore, it is now commonplace to see many shops, restaurants and commercial places to post their bank accounts or mobile money and digital payment accounts on a conspicuous place.
Even though this large number of customers who opt to pay using digital platforms is driving many merchants to adopt the apps as can be seen from many of the merchants in Diredawa, many people like Abaynesh find it difficult to do their transaction through digital payment systems. However digital literacy is posing challenge on the adoption rate of the digital payment systems and digital finance.
To test the impact of the digital literacy gap and its impact on adoption rate of the digital payment systems it is possible to see how young merchants in the city are using them. Like many of the developing urban areas in Ethiopia and other parts of Africa Tricycles or auto rickshaws are the principal means of transportation in Dire Dawa . For a ride based on the passengers’ request many of the auto rickshaws charge a minimum of hundred birr. The mobile payment systems are working well with majority of the drivers in Dire Dawa .
Anteneh Addisu, an auto rickshaw driver in the city says he uses either Telebirr of Ebirr to receive payment from commuters who prefer to use digital or mobile payment platforms. Opposite to people like Abaynesh, Anteneh says he has no difficulty using the digital payment systems.
“It is order of the day so I use telebirr and Ebirr,” says Anteneh who also noted that the transaction goes in spite of the difficulties he and other merchants face in the process.
“When some of the payers transfer the payment to our accounts, the notification in our phone may sometimes delay. So they show us the voucher from their phones and to avoid disappointing our customers we agree on that,” said Anteneh regarding the difficulties.
Ethiopia is streamlining its digital payment ecosystem through the Digital Ethiopia Strategy 2025 (DES 25). According to a report which was presented at the beginning of the year concerning the DES 2025, the strategy has managed to achieve its five years goal ahead of the time, ie 2025. It has also managed to onboard as many people to the digital platform beyond the plan.
Part of the country’s Digital strategy implementation that drove many people to the digital platform is the aggressive work on digital id subscription. Statistics show that the number of Digital ID subscribers has surpassed 15.5 million as of May 2025. This is a bottom line factor that simplifies people’s journey to the digital infrastructure including the instant payment systems.
The digital strategy of the country has enabled to raise the number of digital payment subscribers from only 1 million in 2020 to 128.5 million in 2024 with an inactive rate of only 28.5%, according to NBE.
The number of daily transaction through the digital platform was 7.5 million with a daily transaction value that exceeded 26 billion birr. The five years’ total transaction until November 2024 was more than 9.7 trillion birr which surpasses cash, NBE’s report indicates.
Run by Ethiotelecom, Ethiopia’s largest telecom service provider, Telebirr is one of the most widely used mobile wallet and digital payment platforms. Speaking on a panel discussion held in Dire Dawa city recently Ethiotelecom CEO Frehiwot Tamiru said the number of subscribers of Telebirr has reached 53 million.
In the last two years, the DES 2025 has somehow helped to raise the financial inclusion rate in the country which stood at 46% to more than 65% at this moment, it was learned.
Building up on the achievements of the DES25, the government has formulated the DES 2030 which aims to deepen digital payment adoption, full interoperability and digital Id integration as well as Merchant acceptance acceleration.
At the center of all these plans is the issue of digital literacy as it play meaningful role in the adoption rate of the digital payment applications. As merchants and customers embark more on the platforms, the service providers also need to simplify the use and alleviate possible hitches in the use of the applications.
“I know how to withdraw the money from my account. My problem is depositing money in it. Depositing money needs some kind of education. But I am not educated,” said Abaynesh regarding what part of the mobile payments she faces trouble with.
Though level of education helps, digital payment systems need to adapt themselves to the minimum possible literacy level of the localities in terms of language and steps of operation.
In addition to troubles faced by people of Abaynesh’s profile, all subscribers get pissed off by glitches like delay in sending notifications or confirmation of transfer as indicated by Anteneh.
Internet service providers and technology developers need to scale up the integrity of their services to prevent the possible dissatisfaction of digital payment users. Moreover, there is a need for an intervention to approximate the digital literacy gap and address its impact on the adoption of the digital payment and finance system.
BY ZEKARAIS WOLDEMARIAM
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SUNDAY EDITION 13, July 2025
