Mobile money companies in Ethiopia are set to start paying licence fees following the amendment of the National Payment Proclamation, which requires foreign and local fintech operators to pay a regular fee.
The proclamation, which was passed by the Council of Ministers last month, is expected to be ratified once Parliament is back from recesses.
Officials at the central bank said, “the amount is not fixed. It will be stated in the directives of the proclamation. We are currently finalizing the directive required to put the proclamation into effect.”
The amendment of the 2011 proclamation is necessitated to open the mobile money sector to foreign operators. This came especially after Safaricom Ethiopia requested to bring onboard its mobile money arm, Mpesa.
However, Mpesa, which is awaiting the amendment of the National Payment Proclamation, is unhappy with the requirement for a license fee.
Mpesa is already undertaking preparations to enter the Ethiopian market after government officials gave the green light last year. Managers from the telecom also confirmed that technical work is already afoot.
“Mpesa has already started building the backdoor software developments. At the beginning, Ethiopian officials told us there would be no license fee for Mpesa. But now, they are telling us there will be a license fee,” complained an official working with Safaricom Ethiopia, linking the inconsistency with the ebbing Ethiopia’s forex reserve.
However, Tewedaj Eshetu, public relations and communication manager at Safaricom Ethiopia, said they are waiting for the proclaimation to be ratified.
Managers of local mobile money companies believe the license fee is a global trend and the amount is not as large as many fear.
“The NBE consulted with owners of mobile money companies before approving the amended Payment System Proclamation. Comments and complaints were included during the stakeholders’ discussion on the draft document,” said a manager of a local mobile money company.
On the other hand, Safaricom Ethiopia is currently preparing for a wide service provision. The telecommunication is set to launch commercial service in Addis Ababa at a national level in October
