M-Pesa in Ethiopia: Safaricom is in “advanced talks” with the Ethiopian government to introduce its popular M-Pesa mobile money service to neighbouring Ethiopia, a market of 100 million people, two sources said on Tuesday.

Britain’s Vodafone, Safaricom’s parent company, will license the use of the M-Pesa trade name to an Ethiopia-based bank while Safaricom will host the servers in Nairobi, one telecoms industry source told Reuters .

Ethiopia’s state telecommunications monopoly, Ethio telecom, will carry the service, the source added.
Started in 2007, M-Pesa has nearly 30 million users in Kenya.

This will be the second time that Safaricom is pushing its highly successful mobile money franchise outside Kenya.

It had alreasy introduced M-Pesa in South Africa. However, its pursuits fell short and the franchise failed to pick up.

M-Pesa is regarded as one of the most successful money transfer businesses in the world. It has also been a key driver of Safaricom’s profitability over the recent past.