Ethiopia: EthSwitch concluded a very successful fiscal year – 2021/22, despite adverse economic circumstances created by numerous challenges both domestically and internationally

In the fiscal year 2021/22, EthSwitch S.C., Ethiopia’s National Switch, had an outstanding results across the board in terms of its operational activities, income generation, and policy revision.

Ethswitch commenced the implementation of its first five-year strategy in July 2020. In order to enhance the performance of EthSwitch in the year under review, the Board of Directors examined and approved changes to the Board, Corporate Governance Guidelines, the organizational structure, the Addendum to the Human Resource Policy, the Accounting Policy, the Procurement Policy, the Salary Scale, and the Benefits Package.

The Company’s net profit before taxes increased by 153% from last year to 221 million birr in the 2021/22 fiscal year. This is the result of prudent expense management and a notable increase in total revenue. Ethswicth generated 329,879,068 birr revenue, meeting 110% from its target and registering an 84% increase from the prior year.

In the fiscal year 2021/22, the banking industry processed a total  171,068,129 ATM transactions of which over half 39,894,113 were interoperable transaction processed through Ethswitch. This Ethswitch facilitated over 44 billion birr worth of transactions 

Similarly of a total of 2,339,255 POS transactions worth Birr 62,183,090,000 in the industry, 361,321 (a 230% increase from the previous year) were interoperable transactions successfully processed by ETS. All member banks are now participating in the POS interoperability service as both acquirers and issuers.

EthSwitch concluded FY 2021/22, providing 301,293 card and PIN personalization services, a 7% increase over the previous year’s same period. This service is also expected to expand rapidly as new banks licensed by the NBE join EthSwitch as hosted members.

In the year, the Interoperable Person-to-Person (P2P) service, which has progressed from pilot to commercial stage, recorded 2,063,534 transactions with a total value of Birr 19,999,726,018. This is another service that is rapidly expanding and has enormous potential.

In 2021/22, 2,063,534 transactions for a total of Birr 19,999,726,018 were processed using the Interoperable Person-to-Person (P2P) service, which has graduated from the pilot phase into the commercial phase during the fiscal year. This interoperability function is growing quickly and promises huge potential.

In terms of International Card Acquiring, Ethswitch is currently working with a number of payment alliances, including MasterCard, Visa, and Union Pay International (UPI), to connect to global payment networks.

Hosting banks and other financial institutions can use Ethswitch as a third-party payment processor if they need to use the internationally linked network. The MasterCard Acquiring project is currently completion and is live.

About Ethswitch: – EthSwitch is the National Switch owned by all banks (private and public) operating in Ethiopia, the National Bank of Ethiopia, MFIs, PIIs, and PSOs.E thSwitch is mandated to Create Interoperability between financial institutions, develop & Institute Domestic Payment Scheme, and provide Shared Infrastructure/Platforms to Financial Institutes.  The mission of the Company is ’’Making Payments Simple and Affordable’’, and its Vision is ‘’To be best in class Payment Network in Africa by 2035’’.