Safaricom Unveils Mpesa Global in Ethiopia

Addis Ababa,

Tuesday, 15 October, 2024 

McCreadie Andias 

Safaricom has unveiled it's Mpesa Global services in Ethiopia through a collaboration with Safaricom Ethiopia. 

This is a service that enables M-PESA registered customers to send and receive money globally.

"We are excited to announce we have expanded M-PESA Global service to Ethiopia!" The telecommunications giant said on Monday. 

The initiative will streamline cross-border mobile money transfers making it faster, safer, and more affordable to transact money across the country and beyond. 

The move will enable M-PESA users to send money directly to Ethiopia via their M-PESA wallet, targetting Ethiopians living in Kenya and Kenyans working in Ethiopia,including anyone with business ties in both countries. 

Safaricom says the collaboration will strengthen financial integration in East Africa, supporting the adoption of digital payments and boosting local economies. 

The initiative comes two years after Safaricom Ethiopia switched on its mobile telecommunications network and services in Addis Ababa, the country’s capital city.

The Ethiopian government launched Digital Ethiopia 2025 to help the country realise its digital potential and leverage technology to build a more prosperous society. As part of that process, Safaricom Ethiopia was granted a nationwide full-service Unified Telecommunications Service Licence and is the first company in the country to launch a competitive mobile service to Ethio Telecom, which is state-owned. 

Safaricom Ethiopia’s 2G, 3G and 4G mobile services are available in 11 cities from today, including the capital and the country’s second largest city Dire Dawa.

The company launched services in a total of 25 cities by April 2023 to meet the 25% population coverage obligation in its licence. 

Safaricom Ethiopia is owned by an international consortium including Vodafone Group; Safaricom PLC; Vodacom Group; Sumitomo Corporation – one of the largest international trading and business investment companies; and British International Investment (BII) - the UK’s development finance institution and impact investor.

Safaricom PLC is the leading telecommunication company in East Africa boasting over 38 million customers within the region and beyond. 

The company's total economic value was estimated at KES 358.6 Billion ($3.58 Billion) for the 12 months through March 2021. 

Listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange and with annual revenues of over KES 250 Billion ($2.5 billion), Safaricom provides connectivity through wide range of technology, 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G in aggregate covering over 99% of Kenyans 

It runs the world’s largest mobile payment system and Africa’s largest Fintech - M-PESA, the world’s first mobile money transfer system.  

It's Mpesa services enable over 28 million customers to transact, save or borrow money through their mobile phone.