Jan 17 , 2026
The Ministry of Justice has ordered all commercial banks to freeze the accounts of eight payment gateway providers and submit full financial records. In a December 29 directive signed by Tesfaye Daba Wakjira, State Minister for the Attorney General Division, the order covers ArifPay, AddisPay, FenanPay, LakiPay, SantimPay, Kacha, Chapa Pay, and Sinan Pay. Banks are required to report all domestic and foreign currency balances, share capital, and transaction histories from account opening to date, along with Excel-formatted statements, KYC records, and proxy details certified by official bank seals. The move follows a separate December 23 order lifting account freezes on 50 individuals. From these individuals, YagoutPay CEO Teshome Alemayehu has been set free. Authorities are investigating alleged tax evasion and money laundering as part of tighter oversight of the fast-growing digital finance sector. Star pay and Yagout pay has been lifted from the freezed accounts after a week. Editor's Note: This article has been updated from its original form on January 18. The information that Starpay and Yagout Pay being among the list of frozen accounts has been removed and updated. We regret the error and apologize for any confusion caused.
Loading your updates...