Ethiopia’s digital finance landscape is on the verge of a historic transformation. EthSwitch S.C., the operator of the nation’s central payment infrastructure, has officially opened an International Settlement Account in partnership with the Bank of Abyssinia. This milestone paves the way for the imminent rollout of international payment card acceptance across the country, bridging a long-standing gap between Ethiopia’s domestic financial systems and global payment networks.
The newly established multi-currency US dollar settlement account operates through the Bank of Abyssinia, which maintains a vital correspondent banking relationship with Citibank. According to EthSwitch officials, technical preparations for the first phase of the rollout are already complete, and rigorous regression testing has concluded.
“The new settlement account enables cross-border payments—whether through cards or other payment methods—to be accepted and settled directly into a foreign-currency account,” noted EthSwitch CEO Yilbes Addis. The service is expected to go live within the next one to two months, pending final contractual procedures.
This operational breakthrough is heavily anchored in recent foreign-exchange and macroeconomic reforms. The architecture of the new system directly leverages Foreign Exchange Directive No. FXD/01/2024, issued by the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) in July 2024. The directive introduced a more market-driven exchange-rate system and relaxed historical restrictions on foreign-currency accounts, offering commercial banks and institutions the structural flexibility needed to handle international transactions. For decades, tight foreign-exchange controls severely limited the integration of Ethiopian financial institutions into the global payment architecture.
Phase One (Imminent Launch): Focuses on inbound international payments. Visitors, tourists, and international cardholders from nearly 200 participating countries will soon be able to execute transactions using foreign-issued cards at local ATMs and Point-of-Sale (POS) terminals connected to the Ethiopian payment network.
Phase Two (Future Expansion): Will focus on outbound capabilities, allowing Ethiopian cardholders to make purchases, withdraw cash, and conduct online transactions abroad using locally issued cards. The timeline for this phase remains subject to formal regulatory approvals and direct agreements with international payment networks.
Beyond global card networks, EthSwitch’s latest expansion forms a critical pillar of a broader national strategy to integrate Ethiopia’s financial ecosystem with regional and international partners.
As part of these outward-looking initiatives, EthSwitch has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Payments Corporation of India. This partnership aims to explore deep payment interoperability, potentially bridging systems with platforms like India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) to facilitate seamless instant payments and cross-border remittances.
Domestically, these steps align seamlessly with Ethiopia’s National Digital Payments Strategy for 2026–2030, which debuted alongside EthioPay, the nation’s new instant-payment system. The strategy seeks to expand affordable, low-cost cross-border transfers and promote widespread digital financial inclusion.
The integration timing coincides with phenomenal growth in Ethiopia’s digital financial sector. During the 2025/26 fiscal year, EthSwitch reported a gross profit before tax of 2.6 billion birr, processing a massive 387 million transactions with a combined value of 1.26 trillion birr.
