The National Bank of Ethiopia is considering amendment to its "Mobile and Agent Banking Services" directive enacted in January 2013, Fortune reported.

The directive opened the door for banks and micro-finance institutions to provide transaction-based mobile and agent banking services.

The National Bank of Ethiopia, however, is now reassessing whether the level of foreigners involvement in partnership with local financial institutions could violate the restriction on foreigners involvement in the country's financial industry, according to Fortune.

Several banks and micro finance institutions have submitted applications to the central bank to launch mobile banking services.Most of these financial institutions have partnered with the two foreign mobile banking technology providers-the Irish M-Birr and Dutch-based Bell Cash Technologies which have been licensed as value-added service providers.

The NBE is not granting permanent licenses to this financial institutions until the clarification of the issue, according to the reports of Fortune.

Source: Fortune