Ethiopia’s Payment Switch Clears $8 Billion

EthSwitch, Ethiopia’s national payment switch, processed $8 billion (ETB 1.26 trillion) in interoperable digital transactions during the 2025/26 fiscal year, underscoring the rapid growth of the country’s digital payments ecosystem.

Announcing results for the year ended 30 June 2026, the company reported $16.5 million (ETB 2.6 billion) in gross profit before tax and processed 387 million interoperable transactions across its network.

Person-to-person (P2P) transfers remained the dominant payment channel, accounting for 242.6 million transactions worth $6.7 billion (ETB 1.06 trillion)—more than 80% of the total value processed during the year.

ATM transactions reached 131.5 million, valued at $1.2 billion (ETB 189.2 billion), while point-of-sale (POS) payments totalled 3.9 million transactions worth $67.8 million (ETB 10.7 billion).

Ethiopia’s interoperable QR payment system, ETHQR, processed more than 551,000 transactions valued at $43 million (ETB 6.8 billion).

During the year, the platform surpassed one million P2P transactions in a single day, processing $32.3 million (ETB 5.1 billion)—its highest daily transaction value to date.