Mastercard to Introduce Tokenisation in Ethiopia

Payment giant Mastercard is preparing to launch 'tokenisation' in Ethiopia, a technology designed to replace sensitive card details with digital tokens to mitigate security risks during transactions. As of June 2024, Ethiopia had 14,030 point-of-sale (POS) terminals, with 77% concentrated in Addis Ababa. A draft National Digital Payments Strategy has identified limited merchant acceptance as a primary constraint for the widespread adoption of digital payment systems. Local payment operators, including ArifPay, SantimPay, and AddisPay, are actively expanding their services despite facing significant technical, regulatory, and financial hurdles. Access to transaction data is expected to help payment providers refine fraud-detection systems and improve financial intelligence, though it may also create competitive advantages against smaller local firms.