EthSwitch, Ethiopia’s national switch owned by all public and private banks together with the National Bank of Ethiopia has launched the country’s National Instant Payment System. The system was officially launched at the Ethiopia Digital Payment Conference 2.0 in December 2025, opened by H.E. Dr. Eyob Tekalign, Governor of the National Bank of Ethiopia, and H.E. Temesgen Tiruneh, Deputy Prime Minister.
EthSwitch now connects 32 banks, 12 MFIs, three PSO and three PII, providing modern card-switch hosting, centralized automated reconciliation, and modern card and shared e-wallet services to its members. With newly established EthioPay-IPS, EthSwitch expands its national role by giving financial institutions the modern payment rails to deliver faster, more affordable, payment transactions through account-to-account and wallet-to-wallet transfers, ETHQR, alias and recurring payments, strengthening domestic interoperability.
"“Our goal is to provide simple, affordable, secure and efficient digital payment infrastructure to every retail payment provider and through them, to every Ethiopian,” said Abeneazer Wondwossen Chief Portfolio Officer at EthSwitch.
