{"id":48013,"date":"2025-12-06T11:40:30","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T08:40:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/?p=48013"},"modified":"2025-12-06T11:40:30","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T08:40:30","slug":"m-pesa-calls-foul-on-limited-access-to-new-app","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/48013\/","title":{"rendered":"M-PESA Calls Foul on Limited Access to New App"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Vodacom Group to buy out Kenyan government\u2019s 15pct stake in Safaricom<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Safaricom-affiliate M-PESA Ethiopia has lodged complaints with the authorities, alleging that its new financial services app has been disabled by state-owned operator Ethio telecom.<\/p>\n<p>M-PESA Lehulum, a telecom agnostic customer-centric financial services app that allows any Ethiopian to transact on Safaricom\u2019s M-PESA mobile money platform, was launched on December 1.<\/p>\n<p>This mobile application can be downloaded from any telecommunication network and provides simple and secure access to digital financial services. The app is designed to work with any SIM card, without SIM and across any telecom platform. Onboarding is through Fayda National ID\u2019s eKYC system.<\/p>\n<p>The app is a rival to Ethio telecom\u2019s massive Telebirr platform, and observers say the state-owned operator is likely concerned that M-PESA might erode its customer base.<\/p>\n<p>A public statement issued by M-PESA on Friday December 5, 2025, reads \u201cWe would like to inform the public that M-PESA Lehulum is currently not accessible on smartphones using mobile data services managed by Ethio telecom<strong>,<\/strong> leaving our customers unable to log in, transact, or retrieve their funds.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The app is fully approved by the regulator, the National Bank of Ethiopia and INSA, according to the statement.<\/p>\n<p>M-PESA Ethiopia is a stand-alone legal entity duly registered in Ethiopia and holder of a payment instrument issuer license from the central bank.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe would like to confirm that our team is working diligently to maintain access to M-PESA Lehulum and restore full digital reachability as quickly as possible. We are actively engaging with regulators to resolve the matter urgently and remain committed to protecting your freedom of choice as well as ensuring uninterrupted access to the digital and financial tools that you rely on,\u201d reads the statement.<\/p>\n<p>The Ethiopian Communications Authority, Ethio telecom, and the NBE have yet to issue an official response to the statement.<\/p>\n<p>M-PESA\u2019s troubles come following a September report from the World Bank highlighting unfair practices in the Ethiopian telecom sector and accusing Ethio telecom of undercutting the competition.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0The app\u2019s launch also coincides with news that Vodacom Group Limited is buying out the Kenyan government\u2019s 15 percent ownership stake in Safaricom for a reported USD 1.6 billion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vodacom Group to buy out Kenyan government\u2019s 15pct stake in Safaricom Safaricom-affiliate M-PESA Ethiopia has lodged complaints with the authorities, alleging that its new financial services app has been disabled by state-owned operator Ethio telecom. M-PESA Lehulum, a telecom agnostic customer-centric financial services app that allows any Ethiopian to transact on Safaricom\u2019s M-PESA mobile money [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":48014,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"editor_plus_copied_stylings":"{}","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1935,1960],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-48013","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-latest-ethiopian-business-news","8":"category-latest-news-in-ethiopia"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}