Despite Swell of Transactions, Eth-Switch Declares Loss

Dec 29 , 2018


Eth-Switch S.C, a consortium of all banks established to integrate the national electronic payment system, reported 14.4 million Br in losses in the last financial year. This is the second year in which the company reported losses since it became operational in 2015. The financial statement of the company cites a loss, as the higher value was deducted as depreciation, according to Yilebes Addis, the new CEO who joined the company almost two months ago. “If the value wasn’t recorded as depreciation, it would show a profit,” he said. In the past fiscal year, the company made 14.6 million in transactions valued at 6.2 billion Br. Two years ago the values were 7.7 and 2.9 billion Br, respectively. “Our focus during this fiscal year will be on transactions made by Point of Sale (PoS) machines,” Yilebes told Fortune. Currently, there are 3,127 ATM terminals, of which 1,451 belong to private banks, with the remainder belonging to the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, servicing five million cardholders.


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