EthSwitch, Ethiopia’s national switch operator dedicated to fostering interoperability among financial institutions, has announced a substantial achievement in facilitating interoperable transactions, totaling 92.4 billion birr during the 2022–23 fiscal year.
The majority of these transactions, amounting to 71.4 million, were in the form of interoperable ATM transactions, reaching an impressive sum of 89.7 billion birr.
This signifies a remarkable increase of 79 percent compared to the previous year. EthSwitch also recorded 970,434 interoperable point-of-sale (POS) transactions, accounting for 2.6 billion birr.
Notably, EthSwitch saw substantial growth in peer-to-peer (P2P) transfer services, including account-to-account, account-to-wallet, wallet-to-wallet, and wallet-to-account transactions, which amounted to 14.1 million birr.
This marks a remarkable 584 percent growth compared to the previous fiscal year.
Owned by the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE), in collaboration with financial institutions and digital financial services providers, EthSwitch achieved significant milestones in various areas in the past fiscal year.
Solomon Desta, Board Chairperson of EthSwitch and Vice Governor of NBE, highlighted key accomplishments, stating,
“The National Payment Gateway has received pilot authorization from the National Bank of Ethiopia, and the pilot phase has commenced.
The Instant Payment System and Shared Wallet System are in the final stage of the User Acceptance Testing (UAT) process.”
Solomon further added,
“The Shared Reconciliation project, a multi-tenant platform designed to enhance operational excellence in the day-to-day reconciliation process, has been launched and moved to a production environment for EthSwitch’s use.”
Looking forward to the upcoming fiscal year, EthSwitch aims to concentrate on delivering high-quality services, improving existing infrastructure, completing ongoing projects, and strengthening international and regional (cross-border) payment collaborations.
For more information and updates, stay tuned for EthSwitch’s continued efforts to drive innovation and enhance financial interoperability in Ethiopia.
