M-PESA Ethiopia’s new “Lehulum” digital wallet app, launched on December 1, 2025, promised seamless financial transactions for users across all mobile networks.

However, within days, subscribers on Ethio telecom’s mobile data network found themselves unable to log in, pay, or transfer money, while users on Wi-Fi or Safaricom’s network continued using the app without interruption. The disruption, first reported on December 4, 2025, was against the app’s initial promise of operational independence from a specific telecom operator or SIM card.

According to Tewedaj Eshetu, public relations and communications manager for M-PESA Ethiopia, the app was developed to function on Safaricom and Ethio telecom networks. It was intended to be independent of the user’s SIM card.

“For reasons we don't yet understand, the app is currently blocked on the Ethio telecom network," Tewodaj told Fortune. "All users have the right to access and use the app on any network."

According to her, Ethio telecom has not provided any explanation for the outage. In response, M-PESA Ethiopia reported the situation to the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) and the Ethiopian Communications Authority on December 5, 2025.

M-PESA Ethiopia launched "Lehulum" on December 1, 2025, which is widely viewed in the industry as an M-PESA-like offering to meet growing demand for flexible, app-based financial services in the Ethiopian market. The app, rolled out as a telecom-agnostic platform, was meant to allow users across different mobile networks to send and receive money, make payments, access short-term loans, and manage other day-to-day transactions.

The launch was widely seen as a step forward for digital financial inclusion, following the government’s market-opening reforms and M-PESA’s ambitions to expand its reach in Ethiopia.

M-PESA is a global pioneering mobile money platform that first debuted in Kenya in 2007, the result of a partnership between Safaricom and Vodafone. Since then, the service has expanded into Tanzania, Mozambique, the DR Congo, Lesotho, Ghana, and Egypt. It allows millions of customers to send and receive money, pay bills, and withdraw or deposit cash through a network of agents.

Ethiopia, long considered a closed market for foreign telecom and fintech firms, opened its doors to international mobile money services in 2022 under a new regulatory framework. Safaricom Ethiopia obtained a license and launched M-PESA in May 2023. The company began offering services, including money transfers, merchant payments, cash-in and cash-out, and airtime purchases. The launch of the "Lehulum" app marked the latest in a series of efforts by Safaricom Ethiopia to deepen its foothold in the country and bring more subscribers into the formal financial system.

While Lehulum is a new entrant, M-PESA Ethiopia has operated for two years. The latest disruption comes at a moment for Safaricom Ethiopia. A report by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in late 2025 revealed the financial pressures the company faces. The company posted a 325 million dollar loss in 2024, even as it generated 53.6 million dollars in revenue. The losses, according to the report, resulted from high operational costs and competition with Ethio telecom, which still dominates the sector and controls much of the infrastructure as well as its own mobile money service, Telebirr.