United Bank Share CompanyS.C received legal license from the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) to launch Agent Banking across Ethiopia, according to The Ethiopian Herald.

Taye Dibekulu, United Bank’s president at a press conference held on Friday, April 10, 2015, said, Agent banking is preferable in terms of cost-effectiveness and avails an opportunity for those who live in remote rural areas than opening new branches which requires enormous infrastructure, human resource and financial capacity.

The system has commenced now following a pilot program set by the NBE standards for three months.
NBE evaluated and approved all the performance of the agent banking system of the United Bank and issued the license, said Taye. He furthered “The services to be rendered include receiving money, withdrawals, and transfers, paying for services and checking balances”.

The system had been named Hibir Agent Banking and it would be delivered by the existing mobile banking techniques. It could be accessed by dialing *8o5805# and following instruction on the menu list that will be displayed.

The amount of money to be transacted via mobile phones is limited by NBE. Maximum amount available in the mobile account of a person with a financial institution should not be more than Birr 25,000. The daily transactions debiting the account of a person with financial institutions should not exceed Birr 6,000.

Source: The Ethiopian Herald