Sybrin has officially announced a major strategic initiative aimed at supporting Ethiopia’s rapidly evolving digital payments modernisation. This move reinforces the organisation’s long-term commitment to East Africa and its overarching vision of enabling secure, efficient, and inclusive financial ecosystems across the continent.
The initiative follows extensive market engagement and research conducted by Sybrin’s Payments team. The research identified Ethiopia as one of Africa’s most strategically significant payments modernisation opportunities, propelled by progressive regulatory reform, rapid digital adoption, and a clear national vision for financial inclusion.
While the country has already made substantial progress in establishing robust foundational payment infrastructure, the next phase of growth is expected to shift toward operational excellence, workflow automation, fraud resilience, digital onboarding, and the overall optimisation of existing payment rails. These enhancements are critical to supporting surging transactional volumes and expanding financial inclusion to broader segments of the population.
“Ethiopia represents one of the most exciting payments modernisation opportunities on the continent today,” says Avinash Naidoo, Product Manager for Payments and Clearing at Sybrin. “What makes the market particularly attractive is that the foundational infrastructure is already in place. The focus is no longer on building payment rails from scratch, but on enabling scale, efficiency, resilience, and trust across the ecosystem.”
Naidoo added that the company sees a major opportunity to contribute through automation, workflow orchestration, fraud risk management, and digital onboarding capabilities that seamlessly complement Ethiopia’s existing framework.
This new strategic push aligns closely with Ethiopia’s National Digital Payments Strategy (NDPS) 2026–2030. The national strategy aims to accelerate financial inclusion, strengthen interoperability, enhance consumer trust, and increase digital payment adoption nationwide. Sybrin notes that Ethiopia’s payments landscape is evolving at an unprecedented pace, supported by growing mobile money adoption, expanding digital identity initiatives, increasing financial sector liberalisation, and ongoing investments in national payment infrastructure.
To ensure deep integration and sustainable impact, Sybrin is partnering with Moti Engineering, one of Ethiopia’s leading ICT solution providers, systems integrators, and ATM suppliers. With over 20 years of experience, a workforce exceeding 800 employees, and an operational footprint spanning 105 cities and towns, Moti Engineering brings unmatched local implementation capability and market expertise.
“Successful expansion into a market such as Ethiopia requires more than introducing technology,” explains Stacey Japhta, Executive Head of Growth and Partnerships at Sybrin. “It requires local understanding, strong relationships, and the ability to navigate a rapidly evolving financial services ecosystem. By collaborating with a respected in-country partner such as Moti Engineering, we are able to establish long-term collaboration with financial institutions and ecosystem stakeholders.”
Moncy Matthews, Moti Engineering’s VP of Enterprise Software Solutions, echoed this sentiment: “We are excited to collaborate with Sybrin to support Ethiopia’s next phase of digital payments modernisation. By combining Sybrin’s proven financial technology platforms with our local market expertise and implementation capabilities, we believe we can help financial institutions accelerate innovation while delivering greater value to customers.”
Sybrin’s comprehensive approach focuses on working side-by-side with financial institutions, regulators, and ecosystem stakeholders to improve operational efficiency, strengthen governance, and streamline customer onboarding. The company believes Ethiopia’s ongoing modernisation initiatives present a unique blueprint for long-term economic and digital growth.
Reflecting on the broader continental trend, Ryan Barlow, Chief Executive Officer of Sybrin, noted: “Across Africa, we’re seeing a shift from infrastructure development to infrastructure optimisation. Ethiopia is a powerful example of this evolution. The market combines scale, regulatory vision, digital ambition, and strong growth potential.”
Barlow concluded that the expansion reflects Sybrin’s core mission of enabling financial institutions to deliver secure, efficient, and inclusive digital services. Rather than focusing solely on building payment infrastructure, Sybrin’s approach centres on helping institutions optimise the operational layers surrounding payments, exception handling, and process automation—solidifying a continental movement from simply building rails to maximising their efficiency, resilience, and interconnectedness.
