2merkato

Ethio telecom’s mobile money platform, Telebirr, has facilitated over Birr 4.1 trillion in transactions since its launch in May 2021.

Ethio telecom and Dashen Bank partnered to provide digital financial services which mainly target low income earners.

The partnership offers micro credit, overdraft, and micro saving services. The micro credit service which is named telebirr mela allows individuals, agents, and merchants to borrow and withdraw money for any transaction while the overdraft service under the name telebirr Endekisse allows individuals to borrow money when they are short of balance in their telebirr account, it was learnt. The micro saving service, telebir sanduq, is a saving service which is available with interest free and interest rate based micro saving services.

Ethio Telecom has announced a 5 percent bonus when users in Ethiopia receive remittance money from abroad via its mobile money service telebirr. The bonus is to be used to buy Ethio Telecom's air time and mobile packages.

The first half of the current fiscal year saw the registration of 189,698 vehicles on Telebirr. According to the announcement of the Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration (MoTRI), the vehicles were registered on the digital cash platform to access fuel subsidies after the Government began implementing fuel supply reform measures and the Ministry and Ethio Telecom signed a memorandum of understanding.

Ethio telecom’s Telebirr received a go ahead from the National Bank of Ethiopia to launch micro credit and saving services. 

The Governor of the National Bank, Yinager Dessie (PhD), stated that the provision of these services through Telebirr would financially benefit a large number of Ethiopians. The National Bank’s decision was also given as part of the ongoing reforms to strengthen the Ethiopian digital economy.