The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE), the regulatory organ of financial institutions in Ethiopia, is set to introduce a standardized cheque with enhanced security using Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) starting from early January 2014.

The new cheque to be printed under the control of the NBE are expected to incorporate enhanced security features so as to make them more difficult to tamper with.

“Currently cheques are validated and passed manually. The account numbers had to be manually validated and tagged. This has created a lot of problem for the banks,” one banker told Capital.

The National Bank has already invited international bidders to participated in the tender.

Currently all Ethiopian banks print their cheque with the state owned printing press, Berhanena Selam Printing Enterprise.

Banking experts said that standardization of the cheque system would greatly aid speedy and reliable transaction.

Source: Capital