ADDIS ABABA – Ethio Telecom said that its mobile money service, ‘Telebirr’ is improving financial inclusion as well as fostering the digital transformation of the country’s mobile financial services.
Ethio Telecom CEO, Frehiwot Tamiru said that telebirr mobile financial services is transforming the nation’s mobile finance, ensuring the inclusion of financially excluded and underserved segment of the society while bridging the gap in country’s digitalization efforts.
It is realizing the digital transformation of the country and simplifying the lives of individuals, enabling businesses and public enterprises to digitalize their services to increase their productivity and efficiency.
“The Enterprise launched its Mobile Money service ‘telebirr’ in May 2021 to address the financially excluded and underserved segment of Ethiopian society and it has become the backbone of Ethiopia’s financial inclusion. As the first mobile money platform, it acquired 36 million subscribers within just two years and transacted worth over 1 trillion Birr,” she said.
In one year, over 2.7 million citizens have gotten six billion birr micro loans while over 880,000 customers saved over 5.2 billion birr using the platform, she added.
Telebirr has 136 master agents, 110,000 agents, 60,000 merchants, and 23 banks working in tandem.
Some 521 major telebirr integrators have been engaged to integrate merchant platforms across a wide network of retail and business partners, allowing customers in supermarkets, companies in entertainment and hospitals, pharmacies, and cafes to pay service charges using telebirr.
Since its launch telebirr offers different services from basic mobile wallet services to the enhanced mobile digital financial services. By using telebirr with a mobile phone, people can make deposits, pay bills, send money to family and friends, remit money internationally, get instant micro-credit, she noted.
Ethio telecom desires to facilitate the digitalization of industries such as education, agriculture, health, lifestyle, and more. It offers customers a one-stop shop for all of their financial service needs, the CEO stated.
Ethio telecom is engaging with the National Bank of Ethiopia to address the regulatory challenges associated with mobile payments. For example, the transaction limit should be eased so that customers get the flexibility to do more transactions with the convenience of a mobile connection, Frehiwot added.
BY MISGANAW ASNAKE
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD FRIDAY 22 SEPTEMBER 2023
