5 FinTech Companies in Ethiopia Diversifying Africa’s Digital Finance

By Leandra Monteiro

The FinTech industry in Ethiopia has undergone some significant changes in recent years due to new regulatory changes introduced by the Ethiopian government. In March 2020, the National Bank of Ethiopia issued a new directive on payment service issuers, which allows local non-banks, including mobile network operators, to offer mobile money services.

While Ethiopia’s FinTech ecosystem remains fairly small-scale, the government’s supportive reforms to promote a digital economy and favorable market conditions have led to growth in the sector. Here are five FinTech companies in Ethiopia to watch out for:

Arifpay Financial Technologies SC is a financial institution licensed by the National Bank of Ethiopia that offers digital payment solutions, ArifPOS and ArifGateway.

Arifpay is Ethiopia’s first Point of Sale (POS) Payment System Operator (PSO) with payment solutions for smartphones, POS and QR payment terminals. Arifpay also has a license to provide payment gateway solutions including electricity bills, airtime top-up e-commerce, school fees processing etc.

Arifpay offers innovative, secure and easy to implement digital payment solutions for MSME merchants, banks and customers, working through commercial partners.

BelCash International was officially founded in 2010 in the Netherlands. In 2011, BelCash decided to establish itself in Ethiopia, the second largest African market, with 115 million people. Although the Ethiopian banking sector is still at an early stage, BelCash has successfully deployed its digital banking platform in 4 major banks and 2 microfinance.

BelCash’s business model is to offer, under the “HelloCash” brand, its open API banking solutions to financial institutions and monetize them via transaction fees.

The BelCash platform built its reputation by offering advanced banking features that enabled the deployment of Agency Banking, Online Banking or full Digital Banking. The platform is perfectly adapted to the Ethiopian context, allowing the end users to access their accounts through channels as diverse as USSD, IVR, social media, debit cards, QR codes, APs.

Chapa Financial Technologies SC is an online payment gateway that enables small businesses and large merchants to accept local or international payments from their customers via our APIs and Chapa’s platform.

The company primarily focuses on securely solving payment-related problems for ambitious businesses and government organizations in developing countries, mainly Ethiopia. Chapa offers services in the following areas: Payment Gateway and Bill Aggregator Solutions.

Kifiya was established in 2010, and is a technology and service company that develops scalable and secure technology platforms. It is a digital financial and payment service provider that leverages innovative technology to build and enable distribution channels that make financial and non-financial services affordable and accessible.

In 2019, Kifiya transitioned into a holding company for technology companies with a focus on launching an ecosystem of vertically integrated digital businesses across various sectors. It has created an integrated scalable technology-based service infrastructure that provides customer-friendly payment services and provides access to financial and non-financial transaction services.

Telebirr is a mobile money service developed and launched by Ethio telecom, the state-owned telecommunications and internet provider in Ethiopia. It took five months to develop the end-to-end service. It facilitates the delivery of cashless transactions.

The Ethio telecom telebirr service allows you to deposit, receive, transfer and spend money using your mobile number. With telebirr, you can easily carry out cashless transactions and receive international transfers. In addition, the telebirr app allows you to make in-store/convenience store payments via QR codes, purchase goods and services online/remotely, or even withdraw physical cash from nearby agents.

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