EthSwitch Celebrates Record Revenues As Digital Transactions Surpass ATM Withdrawals For First Time

EthSwitch, the national switch operator, registered a record 2.2 billion Birr in revenues in the 2024/25 fiscal year as person-to-person (P2P) transactions surpassed ATM cash withdrawals for the first time.

The company reports processing more than 128 million interoperable P2P transactions, which include account-to-account and wallet-to-account transfers, valued at nearly 578 billion Birr over the year. EthSwitch registered less than 120 million interoperable ATM cash withdrawals valued at 156 billion Birr over the same period.

“The landmark moment reflects not only EthSwitch’s success in driving digital payment adoption but also signifies a broader national shift toward a more cash-lite, digitally empowered economy,” wrote CEO Yilebes Addis in the company’s annual report.

When EthSwitch was established in 2011 as a share company owned jointly by commercial banks, microfinance institutions, and the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE), digital transactions in Ethiopia were virtually nonexistent.

The firm introduced ATM interoperability five years later and followed that up with point of sale (PoS) interoperability in September 2020, allowing anyone with a payment card to use PoS machines issued by any commercial bank to conduct a digital transaction.

It was not until late 2021 that EthSwitch officially availed a national integrated payment system that allowed for the instant transfer of funds from one financial institution to another.

EthSwitch has enjoyed a consistent growth in P2P transactions in the years since. In 2021/22, the operator recorded under 2.1 million P2P transactions valued at nearly 20 billion Birr. Two years later, EthSwitch processed 49.7 million transactions valued at 271 billion Birr.

The past year was a busy one for EthSwitch. The company acquired a new 12-storey headquarters in Kazanchis and finalized the construction of a “tier-3 equivalent” data center at the headquarters of Zemen Bank, also located in the same Addis Ababa neighborhood.

The switch operator’s data was previously handled in a data center on the premises of the NBE’s headquarters.

“EthSwitch also advanced national initiatives by serving as the central integration point for the Fayda Digital ID, enabling secure, centralized authentication for the financial sector,” reads the CEO’s message.