Lion International Bank and Somali Micro Finance in partnership with Ethiopia’s BelCash Technology Solution, a technology service provider for the financial industry, launched the official pilot of the HelloCash mobile money services.
The HelloCash mobile money platform will provide financial services to all Ethiopians. The service enables existing and potential customers of Lion International Bank and Somali Micro Finance to carry out transactions in four key areas of financial transactions: Deposits, Withdrawal, Money Transfer and Payments.
One of the uniqueness of HelloCash mobile money services is its interoperability and shared infrastructure features. The system is designed for multi banks and MFI’s to be interconnected and offer the mobile money service to their respective customers, therefore, partnering financial institutions are able to share each other’s agent and branch network to serve each other’s customers. This allow any customers of any partnering bank to visit any agent or branches to conduct financial services regardless of which bank customers belongs too. The sharing of agent network allow partnering banks to optimize their investment as well as increase national wide service coverage.
The HelloCash mobile money service is provided in compliance with National Bank of Ethiopia’s directives on mobile money. The pilot is now underway in three parts of the country with locations consisting of a mix of agent outlets and branches.
The HelloCash Mobile Money service would make financial services available to more Ethiopian, especially at the grassroots in order to drive financial inclusion in the country.
