- Wegagen Bank and WorldRemit pairing up to cater for the three million Ethiopians living abroad
- Bank has 335 branches across the Sub-Saharan African state
- “This new partnership will further expand WorldRemit’s reach in Ethiopia, and help Ethiopian Diaspora communities worldwide connect with family and friends back home”, says WorldRemit boss
Global remittance services provider WorldRemit has announced that it will partner with an Ethiopian bank to improve access to cross-border payments in the country.
The firm will pair up with Wegagen Bank, which is one of Ethiopia’s major private commercial banks, to allow the three million Ethiopian people who live abroad to transfer cash back to friends and family.
Wegagen Bank has 1.2 million customers, and once the partnership is active, they will be able to receive cash from 50 nations around the world. They will then be able to collect this cash from one of the 335 branches of the bank across Ethiopia.
According to WorldRemit, countries such as the US, Canada and the UK are frequent senders of remittances to Ethiopia. One study has suggested that there are more than $5 billion of remittances sent to the country in each fiscal year.
The announcement was made during a press conference hosted by the two firms at the Hilton Hotel in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital city, on Wednesday, May 15th.
Senior staff at both organisations said they were pleased about the developments. Sharon Kinyanjui, Head of East and Central Africa at WorldRemit, said the move would lead to “choice and convenience”.
“We are pleased to partner with one of Ethiopia’s leading private commercial banks. Like WorldRemit, Wegagen Bank is committed to offering its customers choice and convenience through digital financial services”, she said.
“This new partnership will further expand WorldRemit’s reach in Ethiopia, and help Ethiopian Diaspora communities worldwide connect with family and friends back home.”
The President of Wegagen Bank, Abay Mehari, said his firm was ”delighted” about the move.
“We are delighted to partner with WorldRemit one of the leading digital money transfer service provider to give our customers more options to receive money sent to them from abroad fast and safe”, he said.
“Wegagen customers would benefit from the fastest and safest money transfer service Wegagen would provide in cooperation with WorldRemit.”
Payment services providers, and tech companies in general, are keen to expand into emerging markets. However, when Africa is involved, Ethiopia is not a name that’s often high on the list. It tends to be others, such as powerhouses like Nigeria and South Africa or states with a Middle Eastern connection like Egypt, that are enjoying growth in areas like these. This partnership is likely to send a strong signal to the market that Ethiopia and other less-well known African states are ready for a payments revolution.
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