Tap. Borrow. Oops! đŸ€•

PLUS: The Mysterious Case of Stablecoins

Welcome to the 76th edition of ፍራንክ Digest!

Your weekly brief on all things Finance and Investing. Quick, enjoyable reads for busy professionals in 5 minutes or less.

Here’s what’s coming your way:

  • đŸ·ïž Telebirr’s Micro Loans Are Giving Mega Headaches

  • 🆚 The People vs The System

  • đŸ–Œïž Big Picture

Thanks for reading!

How to Lose a Borrower in 10 Seconds

Design Point GIF by Aaron Sansoni

Finance

The Story in Three Lines:

→ Telebirr has quietly become Ethiopia’s largest micro-lender, disbursing over 25.8 billion birr in loans to 11.9 million people since launch.
→ In the last fiscal year alone, it handed out 13.2 billion birr to nearly 7 million borrowers, while digital savings hit 11.2 billion birr.
→ Now, Ethio Telecom is hunting down defaulters and some might soon be explaining themselves to a judge: “I swear, ክቡር ዳኛ, the app just kept approving me!”.

If you’ve been following ፍራንክ Digest (and we know you have), this shouldn’t surprise you.

What started as an app for airtime top-ups has morphed into Ethiopia’s unofficial bank. Telebirr’s loan arm has scaled faster than anyone expected and the reason is simple: it’s the first time millions of people can access formal credit instantly. No forms. No collateral. No “come back tomorrow.” Just a few taps and go.

Behind the scenes, it’s actually the banks doing the heavy lifting. Dashen Bank alone disbursed roughly 14 billion birr through Telebirr last year (including micro-loans + overdrafts + salary loans). Add partners like CBE and Siinqee, and you’ve got a telco-fintech-bank tag team that’s rewriting how loans are disbursed.

But as the loans fly out, Ethio Telecom is starting to clear its throat. The company has issued public warnings to delinquent borrowers and the message is clear: pay up, or see you in Lideta’s High Court.

How Big Is This Lending Engine?

Since its 2021 launch, Telebirr’s micro-lending arm has disbursed more than 25.8 billion birr to nearly 12 million customers. That’s not “pilot phase” territory anymore, more like a medium-sized bank hiding inside your SIM card.

In just the past year, 13.2 billion birr went out to almost 7 million users. The average borrower took around 1,900 birr, but when millions do it at once, the numbers balloon. Meanwhile, Telebirr wallets held over 11 billion birr in digital savings. So that’s billions of short-term loans disbursed using billions in savings each month, powered by a few taps on the app. The scale is impressive.

What Does It Cost to Borrow?

Take Telebirr’s “Mela” product.

  • Facilitation fee: 2.5% - 6.5% upfront (day one).

  • Daily rate: roughly 0.3%–1.1%, depending on your score and the partner bank.

So, for a 1,000 birr loan over 30 days:

Subscribe to keep reading

This content is free, but you must be subscribed to ፍራንክ Digest to continue reading.

Already a subscriber?Sign in.Not now

Reply

or to participate.