Central Bank Awards License to First Fintech Payment Operator

Dec 25 , 2021

The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) has granted ArfiPay, a fintech firm, the first-ever license for a payment system operator. This comes after a year the central bank had issued a directive allowing non-financial companies to operate in the financial sector. ArifPay, incorporated with 140 million Br in equity, is the second company to attain a license under the directive following Ethio telecom, which received a payment instrument issuer license for its mobile money platform, Telebirr, earlier this year. ArifPay's license allows the firm to engage as a point of sales (POS) device operator and payment gateway operator.  The central bank has implemented a minimum threshold of 10 million Br in paid-up capital for POS operators and three million Birr for gateway operators The firm has already signed a partnership agreement with Abay Bank to implement a mobile point of sales system as well as with the Information Network Security Agency (INSA) to facilitate payments on the Agency's Derash application.