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Ethiopia grants Kenya’s Safaricom licence for mobile money transfer operations

Published

1 year ago

May 12, 2023

Kenyan telecoms operator, Safaricom has been granted an operating mobile money transfer licence by the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE).

The NBE announced in a statement that it had “today issued the mobile money transfer services licence to Safaricom M-Pesa Mobile Financial Service Plc”.

“This is the first mobile money transfer licence granted to a foreign investor in Ethiopia,” the NBE added.

The licence is the first for a foreign operator in the country’s 100 per cent Ethiopian banking sector.

Safaricom in a statement said the government had adjusted its regulations to accommodate it. “Before issuing the licence, the NBE amended the National Payment Systems legislation to establish the necessary regulatory framework for foreign telecom operators to provide Mobile Financial Services (MFS) in Ethiopia.”

“We strongly support the spread of digital payment systems as a substitute for cash transactions,” says the NBE, as Ethiopia announced last year its intention to open its banking sector to foreign players.

Last week, a senior official at Ethiopia’s central bank, Solomon Desta revealed that the country planned to issue up to five banking licences to foreign investors in the next five years.

The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia and 29 other locally owned participants make up the majority of the banking industry in Ethiopia but Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s administration lately has prioritized the opening up of the banking industry.

Related Topics:Ethiopia Featured Kenya Safricom

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Angola’s draft budget estimates 1.65%/GDP deficit in 2025

Published

1 hour ago

November 1, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Draft budget documents show that Angola’s government expects a 1.65% GDP budget deficit in 2025, up from 1.46% this year.

According to finance ministry records on its website, Africa’s second-largest crude oil exporter’s 2025 budget is predicated on $70 per barrel of oil. Brent crude futures were around $74 per barrel on Friday.

In an interview with Reuters last week, Vera Daves de Sousa, the finance minister of Angola, stated that the southern African nation was under a lot of strain due to the possibility of declining oil prices.

Additionally, according to the draft budget, economic growth would pick up speed in the non-oil sectors, increasing from 3.3% this year to 4.1% next year.

According to the finance ministry, yearly inflation will drop from nearly 29% to 16.6% by the end of next year.

Last week, Daves de Sousa told Reuters that Angola was considering asking the International Monetary Fund for a funding program.

Its most current IMF program, worth $3.7 billion, was authorised in 2018 after the country’s earnings were severely damaged by the collapse of global petroleum prices.

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IMF predicts 4% Middle East, North Africa growth next year

Published

2 hours ago

November 1, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that Middle East and North Africa growth would rebound to 4% next year if oil output curbs were phased out, and headwinds, including wars, subsided.

As geopolitical and macroeconomic concerns remain, the IMF’s latest Regional Economic Outlook, launched in Dubai, predicts “sluggish” growth of 2.1% in 2024.

The IMF noted that risks to the outlook for the overall area, including the Caucasus and Central Asia, “remain tilted to the downside,” and called for an acceleration of structural reforms, notably in governance and labour markets, to raise chances for medium-term growth.

Jihad Azour, the IMF’s director for the Middle East and Central Asia department, said in an interview that the MENA growth estimate for 2024 has been revised downwards by 0.6% from April’s report, mainly due to the extension of the Israel-Hamas conflict and further extensions of OPEC+ voluntary oil production cuts.

He said the “good news” was that inflation was gradually being brought under control across the region. He predicted that the region would average the 3% goal rate in 2024, except for Egypt, Iran, and Sudan.

The outlook, however, differs significantly throughout the region. According to Azour, oil-exporting nations should be better equipped to handle such threats thanks to “strong” growth in the non-oil sector.

Non-oil growth in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region has mostly outpaced overall growth despite lower oil prices and production this year, thanks to government-led investment programs that support domestic demand. The GCC includes Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman.

Oil importers from the Middle East and North Africa are still more susceptible to protracted hostilities and significant funding requirements.

“Even as these issues gradually abate, uncertainty remains high and structural gaps will likely hold back productivity growth in many economies over the forecast horizon,” the IMF report said.

Since January 2024, the IMF has authorised $13.4 billion in fresh investment for Middle Eastern and Central Asian nations, including initiatives in Jordan, Pakistan, and Egypt.