Ethiopia's EthSwitch’s profit soars after hike in digital transactions

EthSwitch, Ethiopia’s national payments switch, annual profit grew by 153% to 221 million Birr after facilitating massive digital transactions in the 2021/22 Fiscal Year.

“This is the result of prudent expense management and a notable increase in total revenue,” the company reported at the General Shareholders’ Meeting of the company held on Thursday, November 24, 2022.

Despite several challenges at the national and international, Ethswitch, a share company owned by all banks operating in Ethiopia, says the year 2020/21 ended with “very successful results”.

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The company generated over 329.8 million Birr in annual revenue, attaining 110% of its target and registering an 84% increase from the preceding year.

The surge in revenue registered in the year EthSwitch launched interoperability of Digital Wallet, Mobile & Internet Banking systems run by banks, Microfinance Institutions (MFIs), and E-money issuers.

– Surge in POS Transactions –

In the 2021/22 Fiscal Year, the banking industry processed a total of 171 million ATM transactions, Over half of nearly 40 million were interoperable transactions processed through Ethswitch.

The total Ethswitch facilitated ATM transactions were more than 44 billion Birr.

Similarly, the banking sector, as a whole processed nearly 2.34 POS transactions worth 62.1 billion Birr. Of these, EthSwitch facilitated 361,321 interoperable transactions, showing a 230% jump compared with 2020/21FY.

All member banks are now participating in the POS interoperability service as both acquirers and issuers, according to Ethswitch.

The national switch concluded the 2021/22 FY by providing 301,293 card and PIN personalization services. The number grew by 7% from the preceding year.

“This service is also expected to expand rapidly as new banks, licensed by the National Bank of Ethiopia, join EthSwitch as hosted members,” company officials stated.

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EthSwitch’s Interoperable Person-to-Person (P2P) service also progressed from pilot to commercial stage.

The service recorded more than 2 million transactions with a total value of nearly 20 Billion Birr.

“This is another service that is rapidly expanding and has enormous potential,” EthSwitch said.

The company is currently working with a number of payment alliances, including MasterCard, Visa, and Union Pay International (UPI), to connect to global payment networks.

Hosting banks and other financial institutions can use Ethswitch as a third-party payment processor if they need to use the internationally linked network.