Visa affirms commitment to Digitize Payments in Ethiopia
Visa has affirmed its commitment to expanding digital payments in Ethiopia at its inaugural Ethiopian Visa Payments Forum. The event brought together key stakeholders from the digital payments industry to explore opportunities to further advance Ethiopia’s growing payments ecosystem.
Visa says it will be working closely with the financial ecosystem in the country to bring the benefits of digital commerce and money movement to consumers, merchants, financial institutions and government partners.
Marking a one-year anniversary since opening its Addis Ababa office, the company also announced a series of partnerships.
In addition to partnerships, Visa outlined two previously announced initiatives to drive financial inclusion and job creation within Ethiopia with STEMPower and to support the development of innovative fintechs with its Visa Everywhere Initiative.
“At Visa, we are extremely pleased to have a local presence in one of the most exciting countries in Africa and to have established strong partnerships to help enable digital commerce. We are excited to support the goals of the Ethiopian economy, where financial inclusion will play an important part in the overall growth journey. We see great tremendous opportunity and are committed to playing our part in bringing more people into the financial system and supporting economic progress,” said Aida Diarra, Senior Vice President & Head of Visa in Sub Saharan Africa.
As a sign of commitment to the digital transformation agenda, the Ethiopian government outlined Ethiopia’s first Digital Transformation Strategy, in June 2020, followed by a series of regulations for its implementation including the proclamation on Electronic Transactions.
“Fast-tracking digitization of payments has multiple benefits for Ethiopians. Enhanced digital infrastructure enables support to local people and small businesses to enjoy the fast, seamless and secure payment experiences that we know are so important. Digitizing payments can also play an important part in driving economic inclusion, which underpins sustained economic growth,” added Diarra.