BelCash and M-Birr, two European mobile banking companies have had a presence in Ethiopia for years, but it looks like they are finally going to get their shot at piloting a mobile banking solution for the growing country. According to Voice of America, there are currently 17 million people with phones capable of supporting a mobile banking platform and the country is expected to reach 40 million in 3 years. While this pilot is still being conceptualized, the government is taking an active role in the negotiations, making sure that strict regulation is in place. With growth happening as quickly as it is in Ethiopia, there will need to be safeguards put in place to ensure the entire banking system doesn’t collapse with the transition.
NFC is not specifically mentioned in the mobile banking plans, yet one is left to wonder what the ecosystem will look like. Will they get stuck testing out individual banking apps for transferring money and paying bills like the United States? Or will they dive head first into the deep end of mobile payment by using NFC for contactless transactions? Whatever M-Birr and BelCash decide to implement, you can bet the eyes of the contactless payment world are now going to be fixed on Ethiopia.
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