Safaricom sees “great momentum” for M-PESA and an “untapped” opportunity to grow m-money services in Ethiopia, but the operator’s new venture in the country will need to pick up the pace on customer acquisitions to begin closing the gap on established rival Ethio Telecom.
Safaricom Telecommunications Ethiopia (STE) reported that it had signed up 3.1 million customers of M-PESA, parent Safaricom’s flagship fintech offering, between it’s August 2023 debut and the end of the year.
Although STE has made a strong start with M-PESA, it remains both dwarfed and outpaced by Ethio, which began offering its Telebirr m-money service in May 2021, in anticipation of STE’s arrival.
At the end of 2023, the incumbent operator reported 41 million Telebirr customers. Unsurprisingly, it has a much larger base after more than a two-year headstart, and it is adding customers at a faster clip than STE.
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