Nairobi — M-Pesa operations in Ethiopia started yesterday, three months after it was approved by the National Bank of Ethiopia to offer mobile money services.

The nationwide rollout follows a three-month pilot and testing program, technical readiness completion, the signing of partnerships with banks, as well as recruitment, training, and onboarding of M-Pesa agents.

Through M-Pesa, the telco says that users can send and receive money in the country and abroad, pay merchants, buy airtime, and transfer money to bank accounts from their mobile wallets, and vice versa.

"We are excited to go live with M-Pesa in Ethiopia and start providing Mobile Financial Services to our customers," Safaricom Ethiopia interim CEO Stanley Njoroge said.

"M-Pesa is known to be a game-changer for financial inclusion and provides services to more than 51 million customers across seven countries in Africa offering a safe and secure platform for transactions," Njoroge added.

The M-Pesa launch in the Horn of Africa country got a nod in June this year after paying a total of Sh20.5 billion ($150 million) to get a mobile financial services license from the Ethiopian government.

Ethiopia, which has over 100 million people, offers the firm an opportunity to grow revenue away from its Kenyan subsidiary.

"We will continue to broaden the services our customers receive from the M-PESA platform that will improve the quality of life for our customers," Njoroge said.

"M-PESA will play its part in fast tracking Digital Inclusion and promote innovation outlined in the Digital payments Strategy 2025."