Zemen Bank Ethiopia introduced a new pre-paid card service that can be used without requiring an account at the bank. The cards will be preloaded with a determined amount of funds that can be drawn from ATMs or used for purchases at POS terminals.

The prepaid cards, expected to be made available for a range of denominations from 100-50,000 birr, will be equipped with a personal identification number to facilitate cash withdrawal said Tsegaye Tetemke President of Zemen.

The prepaid cards can be used as expense cards or be gifted to avoid the need to carry around a lot of cash he noted.

The bank also announced new mobile banking services to allow customers to send and receive money via their mobiles and introduced a new saving scheme that will offer a 7% interest on long term deposits of 500,000 birr or more.

Zemen has joined the international VISA network allowing it to accept visa cards, issued by international banks, at all of its automatic teller machines.

The Ethiopian Bank was accepted by the VISA international network of banks, headquartered in California.

The VISA card services will allow international card holders to withdraw money from their bank accounts via any of the 25 ATM machines operated by Zemen.

Customers will also be able to check bank balances for savings and credit card accounts according to Helawe Tadesse Vice President of Zemen.

Zemen bank has appointed Ethiopian Athlete Haile Gebre Selassie as an Ambassador of the bank to promote its services. Promotion efforts by Zemen will also include an agreement with Abyssinia Ballooning plc with the balloons of the first company of its kind in Ethiopia carrying the bank's logo fir the next four years.

Source: Ethiosports.com/Ethiopian Press Agency