Dashen Bank Partners With Accion & Mastercard To Serve Ethiopian MSMEs

Ethiopian private bank, Dashen Bank, has partnered with global nonprofit Accion and the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth to better serve small businesses with digital financial services customized to meet their financing needs.

Accion is supporting Dashen Bank to build an innovation hub that aims to expand digital banking services to micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) through a range of new products and a focus on women-owned businesses.

Ethiopia’s nearly two million MSMEs are important drivers of its economy, yet only 6 percent of microenterprises and 1.9 percent of small enterprises have access to formal credit. The financing gap in the MSME sector of the country is estimated to be $4.2 billion. Unemployment, low incomes, and a lack of financial education remain key reasons for a lack of access to formal financial services. Moreover, only 39 percent of women — compared to 55 percent of men — have an account at a formal financial institution, preventing them from accessing the evolving digital financial ecosystem and contributing to the country’s economic growth.

Dashen Bank has been at the forefront of introducing innovative digital financial products and services in Ethiopia. It was one of the first banks in the country to launch a digital wallet, which helps small business owners make frictionless transactions. Now, with the innovation hub being built with Accion, the bank aims to develop new solutions, embedded in existing supply chains for MSMEs in Ethiopia that still largely transact in cash, have few assets, and as a result, remain largely invisible to big banks.

The innovation hub is one of the strategic pillars of the Bank’s sixth strategy plan designed to enhance its capacity supporting MSMEs. This move is aimed at driving financial inclusion and fostering economic development through innovative digital solutions.

Asfaw Alemu, Chief Executive Officer, at Dashen Bank, said that despite their critical contribution to the country’s economic growth, small businesses, particularly those led by women, face significant challenges.

“This is largely due to high reliance on cash-based transactions leading to insufficient formal financial records of their business operations and women’s lack of ownership over assets to meet collateral requirements. Through this partnership, we seek to address these challenges, build our operational capacity, enhance our credit offerings to meet the needs of small business owners, and develop a range of digital products and value propositions to help them access the resources they need to grow their businesses successfully. This landmark project underscores our commitment to staying always one step ahead, further cementing our reputation as an industry leader in Ethiopia’s financial sector,” Alemu remarked.

Through strategic partnerships with those supply chains, Accion will help Dashen develop new products designed for MSMEs, using AI to crunch new types of data and develop new credit scoring models that are better suited to the realities of MSMEs, including those that are women-owned. Backed by this new data and extensive research, the innovation hub will build solutions such as credit from their existing suppliers via embedded finance products, and non-financial tools, such as business management support.

Dashen Bank has recently issued a tender to initiate the construction of this forward-looking facility. The innovation hub represents another bold step by the bank toward transforming Ethiopia’s banking landscape, demonstrating its unwavering commitment to harnessing the power of technology to drive progress and support economic empowerment. As part of its future roadmap Dashen Bank will organize an innovation workshop for its leadership and staff, which will explore opportunities in cutting-edge technologies, including artificial intelligence, in collaboration with a globally recognized technology partner.

On her part, Raliat Sunmonu, the Vice President, Middle East and Africa, Accion Advisory, said that Ethiopia is one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies, and small businesses play a vital role in propelling its growth.

“Through this collaboration with Dashen Bank – a leader in financial innovation – and other strategic partners we are helping build a more inclusive ecosystem for MSMEs in Ethiopia. Together, we can deploy artificial intelligence and other tech tools to help remove bias and other roadblocks faced by micro, small, and medium enterprises, especially those led by women,” Sunmonu said.

“Ethiopia is at a pivotal point in its journey to drive economic growth through inclusive and relevant services for micro and small businesses. Digital financial services are a critical component of that journey. For the last decade, the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth has been working to advance financial inclusion around the world. We are excited to partner with Accion and Dashen Bank to develop inclusive financial services that can support the growth and resilience of small business owners in Ethiopia,” Subhashini Chandran, Senior Vice President of Social Impact for Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth said.

This initiative is part of Accion’s 8-year partnership with the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth that supports the transformation of financial service providers, digital platforms, and fintechs, and aims to help 23 million people across 25 countries benefit from the digital economy.