National Bank of Ethiopia Endorses New Platform to Stem Parallel Market

An expansive digital system meant to move more diaspora money through formal channels was introduced yesterday, complementing recently escalated efforts to curb a flourishing parallel market that policy makers say is draining hard currency and destabilizing prices.

At a ceremony at the Sheraton Addis attended by senior bankers and regulators, Eaglelion Systems Technology introduced a three-part platform it says will make sending money to Ethiopia faster and easier. The services, Gift Ethiopia, Ethiopia Remittance, and Agency Connect, are designed to meet different needs in the international transfer chain while knitting banks, licensed agents, and digital providers into a single, interoperable network.

Upon launch, Gift Ethiopia would let members of the diaspora send cash gifts and packaged gift cards directly to recipients. Ethiopia Remittance is pitched as a real-time interface linking licensed agents abroad with all local banks. Agency Connect, the third leg, offers an integration gateway so global remittance firms can plug their APIs into Ethiopian financial institutions without building one-off connections to each bank.

Mamo Mihretu, governor of the National Bank of Ethiopia, cast the launch as part of a larger fight against illicit flows. He said roughly $7 billion entered the country through legal channels over the past year but warned that unrecorded transfers remain significant. “All banks, either unilaterally or through collaborations, need to come up with a convenient, technology-backed platform to facilitate seamless remittance flow for senders and recipients, immediately,” he said, arguing that the lack of accessible tools had helped the parallel market thrive.

The central bank has recently escalated enforcement, including freezing accounts and publicly naming known operators abroad. “Our measures against illicit remittance flows will never stop,”. Mamo said, adding that technology must keep pace with the increasingly sophisticated global payments industry.

For Eaglelion, the bet is that simplicity will draw transactions back onshore. Besufikad Getachew, the company’s founder and chief executive, said the build focused on including Ethiopians who have struggled to use existing services, those without residence permits, immediate bank access or international cards like Visa or Mastercard.

 “We have designed the platform to enable all stakeholders to participate,” he said.

He cited two longstanding choke points, prefunding requirements that make it hard for agents abroad to settle into Ethiopia, and the time-consuming permissions needed for remittance companies to integrate directly with local banks. Through the new agency platform, he said, banks will be able to receive real-time settlement via EthSwitch, the national retail-payments switch. Over time, Eaglelion plans to roll out additional features, including letters of credit and other trade-facilitation tools, while the API gateway is meant to spare digital remitters from building individual integrations with every bank.

Banks, which have watched remittance volumes ebb and flow through informal corridors, welcomed the prospect of cleaner pipes. Asfaw Alemu, chief executive of Dashen Bank, said the technology could help address gaps that became more visible after recent macroeconomic reforms, particularly for Ethiopian workers in the Middle East who struggle to find licensed operators to send money home. “The platform can address several gaps highlighted by Ethiopian diaspora,” he said.

Eaglelion has previously developed more than a dozen applications across fintech, services and payments, including one of the country’s first digital remittance platforms through Cashgo, and custom systems for institutions such as Dashen Bank.