ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA – Ethiopia’s central
bank will allow locally-owned non-financial institutions to start offering
mobile money services as it seeks to boost non-cash payments in the country, it
said.
The Horn-of-Africa nation is in the midst of massive economic reforms led by
reformist Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, including the privatization of state-owned
telecommunications monopoly Ethio Telecom.
The new directive would allow Ethio Telecom, as an Ethiopian-owned company, to
move into mobile money. Any foreign-owned companies, however, would remain
locked out, according to the new regulations that were published on Wednesday.
Foreign telecom operators, including Kenya’s Safaricom and South Africa’s MTN,
have expressed interest in bidding for telecoms licenses in Africa’s second
most populous country.
But without further changes to the regulations, they will remain unable to
offer mobile financial services business, analysts said.
“This directive effectively excludes foreign fin-tech and telecom
companies from reaping the business benefits,” Bahakal Abate, a corporate
lawyer in Addis Ababa, told Reuters.
In February, Ethiopia delayed the award of two telecoms licenses to
multinational companies. The licenses would end the state monopoly and open up
one of the world’s last major closed telecoms markets
Source:
Voice of America
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