By Yanet Fantaye – Ethiopia’s fintech market has shifted from a handful of domestic experiments to a broad, fast-growing payments and digital-finance ecosystem. The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) is actively rolling out its national digital payments strategy and — as of March 2025 — launched Phase Two to deepen usage, push interoperability and expand digital ID integration across 2025–2029. That policy push is the single most important macro catalyst for fintech growth in the country.