Banks Cannot Digitise Their Way to Trust. Humans Do.

Jun 27 , 2026. By Blen Hailu ( Blen Hailu (blenmahi12@gmail.com) studied marketing, management and law. She works in communications and digital content creation, with a focus on human rights, equity and youth engagement.  )

Financial institutions, which rely entirely on consumer confidence to safeguard and transfer capital, routinely subject customers to network failures, cash shortages, and uninformative "system down" assertions without providing clear timelines or alternative pathways. Modern financial platforms cannot function effectively without a corresponding evolution in customer service standards and institutional accountability. When customers are denied basic respect and unambiguous information during routine bank disruptions, their willingness to transition away from physical cash transactions significantly diminishes. Writes Blen Hailu (blenmahi12@gmail.com) studied marketing, management and law. She works in communications and digital content creation, with a focus on human rights, equity and youth engagement.

Earlier this week, I visited a private bank’s branch on Fikremariam Aba Techan St., near Megenagna, to activate mobile banking. Hoping to cut down on future trips and handle transactions from my phone, dropped by the branch, which is under renovation.

I was told the system was unavailable. Still needing to move money, I opted to transfer funds instead. I filled out the forms, completed the digital signature, submitted my Fayda ID and signed every required document. Then I waited.

My representative went on break, a colleague took over, and the power went out. Assuming a routine outage, I sat patiently. Only one other customer was in the waiting area. She had arrived before me, trying to resolve a mobile banking problem tied to money she was about to receive, and growing more anxious by the minute. She explained her situation again and again. Each time, the answer was the same:

"It's the system," with no explanation. No attempt to investigate. No reassurance. Eventually, the weight of it broke her, and she began to cry, visibly, while the employee meant to help her scrolled through his phone.

It was a revealing tableau. One person was overwhelmed by anxiety and hopelessness. The other, seated just across the counter, showed no flicker of concern as the distress played out in front of him.

With the risk of sounding too judgmental, Ethiopians wear hospitality like a badge. It is one of the first things we mention about ourselves. Visitors rarely leave without a story about the generosity of strangers, the culture of sharing, and the respect that anchors daily life.

Yet for many ordinary citizens who visit public offices, private companies, hospitals and banks, the lived experience, day after day, tells a very different story. Whether the destination is a government bureau, a clinic or a corporate front desk, the expectation is similar.

Service quality is poor, hours are lost on a process that should take minutes, or both. Long waits, vague explanations, indifferent staff and an absence of accountability have grown so common that many people no longer expect anything better.

Ironically, banks are the most surprising offenders. They exist because people trust them, built on the confidence that individuals and businesses place in them to safeguard money, move it and provide reliable service.

However, customers are routinely denied the most basic part of that bargain. Respectful treatment is separate from the familiar complaints about cash shortages, network failures and the ever-ready line that "the system is down." Strip those away, and the experience often remains poor.`w

Ethiopia is in the middle of a striking digital transformation. Mobile money, digital banking and expanding telecom infrastructure are reshaping how millions deal with institutions. Telebirr alone has registered 58.6 million users and processed more than 6.88 trillion Br in cumulative transactions, figures that point to real momentum.

But registration is not the same as use. According to the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE), 66pc of women and 60pc of men lack mobile money skills, only 15pc of digital payment accounts are active, and 25pc of financial agents remain active. Despite 85.4 million mobile connections, internet penetration was 21.3pc of the population in early 2025, while adult literacy was around 52pc.

Impressive sign-up totals tell only part of the story. The woman I saw at the Bank’s branch was living inside the other, harder part.

As I debated whether to console her myself, another customer walked in, looked around at the darkened branch and asked why there was no electricity. The representative told him, casually, that the power had been switched off on purpose to accommodate the renovation.

That one detail changed everything for me. Until then, I had assumed the outage was the same kind of fault the rest of the population endures. If the power had been cut deliberately, someone should have said so at the start.

When I asked about my transaction, the employee told me, as casually, that I could leave and he would finish processing it once the electricity returned. With little choice, I trusted him and went home, frustrated but expecting the transfer to clear.

The next day, I discovered it never had. I returned, filled out the forms again and waited through another queue, only to learn that the employee had forgotten to process it. After yet another long wait, and a fresh round of forms and signatures, the transfer finally went through.

The mobile banking I had come to activate still did not work, which meant the very tool meant to reduce my trips to the Bank had failed at exactly that. Instead of convenience, I left with another reminder that future transactions would still demand an in-person visit.

One bad afternoon is easy to dismiss. The pattern behind it is not. The Digital Ethiopia 2030 strategy aims to close these gaps with ambitious targets for digital literacy and public-sector capacity. The goals are welcome, but they uncovered a broader reality. Infrastructure alone does not guarantee adoption, much less good use.

And even if every target is met, a deeper problem survives. Technology can increase throughput. It cannot increase compassion. No app, platform or program can substitute for an employee willing to answer questions, guide a customer toward a solution and offer a kind ear.

The crying woman was not undone by technology. She was undone because no one seemed willing to help her understand what was happening. Her problem was not only a system failure. It was a customer service failure, and that distinction matters because Ethiopia's digital future depends on trust.

People adopt new tools when they believe those tools will improve their lives. Trust is built through working systems, yes, but also through decent human interactions. When customers meet indifference or disrespect, confidence in the institution and its digital services erodes together.

The risk is that institutions come to treat digitalisation as a replacement for service rather than a tool that strengthens it, resulting in modern platforms built on outdated attitudes.

As the country invests in infrastructure and chases its modernisation goals, customer service culture deserves equal attention, because efficiency and empathy are not competing priorities but complementary ones. Staff need training not only in technology but in communication, accountability and professionalism.

Registration counts or transaction volumes will not settle the future of banking, but rather whether customers feel respected, informed and valued. Until that changes, many Ethiopians will keep living the same contradiction.

A country celebrated for its hospitality struggles to find that hospitality inside the very institutions built to serve it.

PUBLISHED ON Jun 27,2026 [ VOL 27 , NO 1365]