M-PESA Ethiopia has accused Ethio Telecom of blocking access to its new telco-agnostic mobile money application, days after launch, in an incident that aligns with earlier World Bank findings about structural advantages enjoyed by the state-owned operator in Ethiopia’s telecom market.
- •In a public statement issued on 5 December in Addis Ababa, M-PESA Ethiopia said its new app, M-PESA Lehulm, “is currently not accessible on smartphones using mobile data services managed by Ethio Telecom.”
- •The company stated that customers relying on Ethio Telecom data were unable to log in, transact or retrieve funds.
- •The app was launched on 1 December and is designed to operate across any telecom network.
M-PESA Ethiopia said M-PESA Lehulm had been fully approved by the National Bank of Ethiopia and INSA, and reiterated that the service is available for download through any network. The company said it is engaging regulators to restore access and is working to achieve full digital reachability.
The issue follows earlier warnings documented in the World Bank’s Ethiopia Telecom Market Assessment, published in 2025, which identified significant competitive asymmetries between Ethio Telecom and new market entrants. The report concluded that Ethio Telecom retained market power and listed areas that could disadvantage competitors, including infrastructure access, pricing practices and operational advantages linked to its long-standing dominance.
Independent reporting based on the World Bank document noted that the assessment was prepared at the request of the Ethiopian Communications Authority and the report stated that these asymmetries risked slowing telecom liberalization unless addressed through regulatory intervention.
Safaricom Ethiopia launched mobile money services through M-PESA Ethiopia in 2023 and introduced the new telco-agnostic app on 1 December 2025. According to company disclosures cited in industry reports, M-PESA Ethiopia recorded 3.4 million active users and processed 12.3 billion birr in transactions between April and September 2025.
Ethio Telecom has not issued a public statement responding to the M-PESA Ethiopia claim.
