Tech It or Leave It

Welcome to the 67th 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:

• 📲 Fintech First, Fundamentals Later: Inside Digital Payments’ Boom

• 🏦 NBE Tells Smaller Banks to Get Rich or Die Trying

• 🗝️ The Key Takeaways

Thanks for reading!

Ethiopia’s Fintech Surge: Balli’n Out Without Purpose?

Fintech

You ever try to pay for a service with your bank app, only for the merchant to say “ስክሪን ሻት ላንሳ?” That, right there, is the unofficial audit system of Ethiopia.

In a flurry of fintech ambition, Ethiopia is sprinting toward a cashless economy. POS machines are multiplying, every bank has a QR code campaign, and government offices are under instruction to go fully digital for payments. But in practice? We’re using smartphones to recreate the same paper mess.

Take a walk into most small businesses, and you’ll find a QR code printed, laminated, and duct-taped onto a desk, but the actual process most often still requires a screenshot or picture taken of your payment confirmation.

Better yet, you send the payment, and your phone buzzes with a text confirming the transfer - along with your remaining balance. Great way to keep your anxiety levels nice and steady whenever someone borrows your phone.

Nevertheless, it’s not that the tools aren’t there. It’s that the trust isn’t.

Our financial infrastructure is skipping crucial middle steps: Digital literacy is low. Platform interoperability is patchy. Customer service is largely MIA once the transfer is made.

So where are we really?

What the Numbers Say (and What They Don’t)