Bank of Abyssinia Rolls Out International Pre-paid and Debit Cards


Bank of Abyssinia Rolls Out International Pre-paid and Debit Cards

Bank of Abyssinia has begun issuing e-commerce enabled domestic and international cards that customers can use to make online payments. The Bank has availed six types of Visa brand interest-free international and domestic debit cards. A directive issued by the National Bank of Ethiopia in November 2020, states that an Ethiopian resident is allowed to open a foreign currency saving account with a minimum of 50 dollars. However, usage of this account is limited to education, medical purposes, and travel expenses abroad to be approved upon presentation of valid documents. The directive goes on to limit usage stating "the account holder shall have the right to withdraw 10pc of the foreign currency balance with a debit card" Pre-paid cards that will be topped up with foreign currency based on an approved amount can be used to make payments for approved purposes as directed by the central bank. E-commerce enabled cards will allow customers to make domestic online payments once services providers integrate their systems. Bank of Abyssinia has so far issued more than 800,000 cards to its customers. The Bank currently has 700,000 active users on its mobile banking solutions who transact 1.2 billion Br a week.


Radar

Coffee Exports Bring in $1.5B in Third Quarter

Ethiopia has earned 1.5 billion dollars from coffee exports over the nine months of the fiscal year. The country had set a target to earn a little over a billion dollars by exporting 201,959tns of coffee during the same period. According to Adugna Debella (PhD), director general of the Ethiopian Coffee & Tea Authority, the export strategy continues to focus on major international markets, with the top 10 destinations, including Saudi Arabia, Germany, and the United States (SU), accounting...


Radar

Central Bank Holds Fourth Exchange Auction

The National Bank of Ethiopia(NBE) sold one dollar for 131.4961 birr in its recent auction. It was reported that 26 banks participated in this auction, which took place last week on Thursday. In a statement issued by the National Bank  following the auction, it was indicated that 70 million dollars was offered for the event. Subsequently, it was reported that 96 pc of the foreign exchange needs of the participating banks were met. In the previous auction, held 15 days ago, the bank had of...


Radar

City Registers 64,075 Births in Fiscal Year

The city has exceeded its birth registration target for the first nine months of the fiscal year, registering 64,075 children—71.15pc more than the set goal of 58,342. This success, with a registration coverage rate of 109.63pc, is largely attributed to the efficiency of the one-centre birth registration service system, which has been rolled out across health centres and courts. The total number of vital events registered, including births, adoptions, marriages, divorces, and deaths, reache...