Ethio Telecom’s Telebirr mobile money service surpassed 1 million customers just under two weeks after launch, Quartz Africa reported.
The newscast announced that the milestone announcement came direct from incumbent wireless operator Ethio Telecom, which launched the service two weeks ago at an event hosted by the country’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
At the reveal, the company said Telebirr was designed to increase financial inclusion for low-income groups. The enormous potential of mobile money services in Ethiopia has already been identified by the GSMA and the World Bank.
In a report published in 2018 on the global introduction of mobile money, the GSMA described Ethiopia as one of Africa’s “sleeping giants”.
Details on the rapid introduction of Telebirr will be announced a few days after the Ethiopian authorities have issued the first mobile phone license to a private company following a lengthy tendering process.
The successful consortium Global Partnership for Ethiopia is led by Safaricom and also includes the affiliated companies Vodafone Group, Vodacom Group and their financial partners. The group will initially not be able to launch a competing mobile money service.
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