The launch of the services, which enables customers to make payments or receive money via a mobile that is linked to a bank account, mirrors technology used in other African nations that has drawn millions of people into the financial system.
Netherlands-based BelCash is providing a technology dubbed helloCash, while MOSS ICT, mainly owned by an Ireland-based company, is rolling out M-Birr in the nation of 96 million people.
In both cases, Ethiopian banks and institutions will provide the service to customers and hold the cash deposited, in line with government policy that bars foreign firms or banks from investing in the financial sector or the telecoms industry.
The central bank approved the roll out for M-Birr, which will be provided by five micro finance companies, in December 2015. It already has 5,000 to 6,000 users and expects to add 13,000 in February.
Two of Ethiopias 16 private banks, Lion International Bank and Cooperative Bank of Oromia, as well as a microfinance firm, have signed up for helloCash. Two more banks have yet to submit applications to the central bank.
Bankers say Ethiopia has no more than 1,500 ATM cash machines, while there was just over 2,200 bank branches as of June 2014, or one for every 40,000 people, the central bank unveiled. Only 1 in 10 people have a bank account.
In addition to branches, which are expensive to set up, banks plan to authorise thousands of agents, such as shops or merchants, in line with new regulations. Such agents will be able to take deposits and hand out cash via the mobile system.
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