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Central Bank Awards Second Payment Operator License

Central Bank Awards Second Payment Operator License

The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) has awarded Sunpay, a fintech firm, a payment operator license. The firm can now embark on its operations as a Point of Sale (POS) and payment gateway operator. Part of the Sunshine Investment Group, best known for its flagship construction company, Sunpay was incorporated last year with 100 million Br in initial capital. The figure is considerably higher than the central bank's minimum threshold of 10 million Br in paid-up capital for POS operators and three million Birr for gateway operators. Two weeks ago, the central bank had issued the first payment operator license to ArifPay. The state-owned Ethio telecom became the first non-financial institution to win a payment instrument issuer license from the central bank last year for its Telebirr mobile money platform.

Radar

LOFTY CONSTRUCTS

A painting depicts traditional farming equipment at the Science Museum around the Arat Kilo area. Since the seizing of power by the current administration, large-scale architectural projects marked by grandeur have proliferated across the capital. The satellite city being built in the Yeka mountains, which is set to cost around 600 billion Br, according to the Prime Minister, is one such project yet to see the light of day. Some estimates put the plot size for the project at around 503hct despit...

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Radar

CLEAN BILL

A queue for diagnostics at the nation's largest state-owned hospital, Black Lion. As the health sector is largely funded by development partners from abroad, decreased support as donors shied away due to the war in the North has required the suspension of several new projects. Social health Insurance slated for next year was scraped due to a budgetary shortfall of five billion Birr. With the physician-to-patient ratio titering at around 1:30,000, queues in public hospitals are commonplace in Eth...

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Radar

ACRID GROUNDS

A street vendor puts up pepper for sale around the Lideta area. With agricultural produce accounting for the largest share of the nation's GDP at around 40pc, setbacks in the delivery of fertilizer have become a source of strife in rural Ethiopia. Only a third of the scheduled fertilizer of 1.3 million quintals has been distributed into the hands of farmers this year. This is despite the year being one in which the government claims to have met local demand for wheat and started exporting. Low p...

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