ETHIOPIA – Flutterwave, an African based fintech company, has partnered with Ethiopia’s mobile Digital Wallet platform, Amole, to facilitate money transfer into Ethiopia.
Through this partnership, Amole Wallet users will be able to send money to bank accounts and cash pickup locations at over 2,500 locations across the country.
Amole offers its customers digital payment capabilities and access to digital products and services to enable users to complete essential transactions at their convenience.
The new partnership with Flutterwave will serve the Ethiopian economy by making diaspora remittances easier for over 8M members of the Ethiopian Diaspora that remit over US$5 billion annually to Ethiopia. Barter by Flutterwave users can send money into Ethiopia via this partnership.
The remittance service in Ethiopia today is seen by users to be expensive, with manual paperwork and delays making it challenging and time-consuming for the diaspora community.
This partnership solves these problems by providing instant delivery of funds to the receiver at no fee, with more control of where and how to send money, including transparency from a regulatory standpoint.
“This is another significant milestone for payments in Africa as we work together to bridge the financial inclusion gap in the country and across the continent.”
Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola – Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Flutterwave
“We are delighted to be collaborating with Amole to enable digital remittances and cash pickup into Ethiopia. This is another significant milestone for payments in Africa as we work together to bridge the financial inclusion gap in the country and across the continent,” Flutterwave Founder & Chief Executive Officer Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola, said.
“Our collaboration will ensure that Ethiopian businesses are getting paid from all over the world, opening massive opportunities for business growth, a goal we are passionate about. This is just the beginning, and we hope to deepen the discussions around our partnership to the benefits of Africans, everywhere.”
To make payment via this new service, a sender outside Ethiopia inputs the details of the receiver in Ethiopia, the payment destination (Amole digital wallet, bank account, or cash pickup location anywhere in Ethiopia), and the security question and answer with which the receiver can access the funds if the preferred payment destination is via an Amole authorized agent.
According to a report by the National Bank of Ethiopia, over 75% of Ethiopia’s population is unbanked, while nearly 40% of all bank branches are in the capital city Addis Ababa.
This collaboration will extend financial services to these underserved communities, by facilitating remittances from diaspora Ethiopians, hence expanding business opportunities for small and growing businesses in these communities.
Subsequently, this will boost financial inclusion within the country as users of the service will have the option to collect cash from any of Amole’s 2,500 authorised agent locations.
