M-PESA Ethiopia Launches Cardless ATM Withdrawals With Bank of Abyssinia
M-PESA Ethiopia has launched cardless ATM cash withdrawal services in partnership with Bank of Abyssinia, allowing customers to withdraw money from supported ATMs using the M-PESA App without a physical bank ATM card.
The service enables M-PESA customers to authenticate ATM withdrawals through their smartphones, with transactions processed in real time and funds made available immediately after successful authorization.
Bank of Abyssinia is the first participating bank in the service, with M-PESA Ethiopia saying the ATM withdrawal network will expand to additional banks.
How M-Pesa ATM Withdrawals Work
Customers can access the cardless ATM withdrawal service directly through the M-PESA App. The process involves:
- Open the M-PESA App.
- Navigate to the M-PESA section.
- Select the withdrawal option.
- Choose “Withdraw at ATM.”
- Authorize the transaction.
- Complete the required authentication and receive the cash from a supported ATM.
The service eliminates the requirement for customers to insert a physical bank ATM card into the machine. Because transactions are processed in real time, customers can access their funds immediately once the withdrawal has been successfully authenticated.
No Physical ATM Card Required
The M-PESA Ethiopia ATM service allows customers to use a smartphone as the channel for initiating and authorizing a cash withdrawal.
Instead of relying on a plastic debit or ATM card, the customer starts the transaction through the M-PESA App before accessing cash at a supported ATM.
This provides an additional way for M-PESA users to convert digital wallet balances into physical cash through existing banking infrastructure.
Bank of Abyssinia Partnership Provides the Foundation
The ATM service builds on an existing relationship between M-PESA Ethiopia and Bank of Abyssinia that began after Safaricom entered the Ethiopian market.
The two institutions entered into a major partnership in late 2023 covering agency services, bank-to-wallet interoperability and integration between bank accounts and Safaricom mobile numbers.
Under the partnership, Bank of Abyssinia became a super agent for M-PESA. This enabled M-PESA customers to visit Bank of Abyssinia branches across Ethiopia to deposit or withdraw cash from their M-PESA wallets.
The arrangement connected M-PESA’s mobile money infrastructure with Bank of Abyssinia’s physical branch network, giving customers access to additional cash-in and cash-out points.
The partnership also connected the two platforms for two-way electronic transfers. Customers could move money between their Bank of Abyssinia accounts and M-PESA wallets through Bank of Abyssinia’s mobile banking application or USSD service using *815#.
This interoperability allowed customers to transfer funds between traditional banking and mobile money accounts without relying exclusively on separate financial channels.
The partnership also included account-to-SIM integration. Bank of Abyssinia customers could link their bank accounts to their Safaricom 07 mobile numbers after registering at a branch.
Through the bank’s mobile banking channels, customers could then check account balances, pay utility bills and purchase Safaricom airtime using their registered Safaricom numbers.
The new ATM withdrawal service extends this existing connection between the bank and M-PESA platforms to cash withdrawals through supported ATMs.
Ethiopia’s ATM Network Remains Limited
The cardless ATM service comes as Ethiopia continues to have relatively low ATM availability compared with its population.
The country has more than 10,500 ATMs, translating to approximately 10.2 ATMs per 100,000 adults, compared with a global average of about 52 ATMs per 100,000 adults.
ATM infrastructure is also concentrated geographically. Addis Ababa accounts for nearly half of Ethiopia’s ATMs, while rural areas have an ATM density of about 0.46 terminals per 100,000 adults. The distribution means access to physical cash machines differs considerably between urban and rural areas.
Ethiopia’s existing ATM infrastructure also handles substantially more transactions than POS terminals.
Banks have issued more than 45 million plastic debit cards, while annual data shows about 437.9 million ATM transactions compared with approximately 10.15 million POS terminal card payments. The figures represent an ATM-to-POS transaction ratio of about 43 to one.
