Ethiopia Advances Nationwide Interoperable Government Digital Payments

Ethiopia has taken another step toward implementing interoperable government payments nationwide as public institutions, regulators and payment infrastructure providers convened to operationalize a unified implementation framework aligned with the country’s National Digital Payments Strategy.

The Ministry of Finance,  the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE)  and national payment switch EthSwitch  brought together technical teams from government institutions to advance implementation of a unified framework aimed at enabling interoperable person-to-government (P2G) and government-to-person (G2P) payments.

Opening the workshop, Neteru Wondwosen, Head of the Treasury and Government Accounts Department at the Ministry of Finance, said the initiative builds on ongoing reforms under the National Digital Payments Strategy, with governance structures now in place to support nationwide implementation. She stressed that all public institutions should be able to accept payments from any regulated financial institution through a fully interoperable ecosystem.

The workshop covered implementation roadmaps, governance structures, digital health payment pilots, public payment use cases and EthioPay’s central billing platform, while participants agreed on coordination mechanisms and institution-specific implementation timelines.

The initiative marks Ethiopia’s transition from digital payments policy to execution, supporting the country’s efforts to modernize public services, expand financial inclusion and strengthen interoperable digital public infrastructure through the National Digital Payments Strategy and EthioPay’s national payment ecosystem.