Kacha, Mastercard Ink Deal to Expand Card Issuance in Ethiopia

Kacha Digital Financial Service SC has signed a landmark five-year agreement with Mastercard to issue payment cards directly to its customers and enable card-issuing services for eligible financial institutions across Ethiopia. Under the partnership, Kacha will offer card issuance capabilities to banks, microfinance institutions, and fintech companies, pending regulatory approvals and individual program arrangements. This agreement builds upon recent strides in Ethiopia’s cross-border payment landscape. In February 2024, Awash Bank partnered with Mastercard Payment Gateway Services (MPGS) to launch international physical and virtual prepaid cards for e-commerce. This was followed in March 2025 by the state-owned Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE), which similarly introduced Mastercard-enabled physical and virtual payment cards to broaden cross-border access. While those initial rollouts were driven by individual banks, Kacha’s new agreement uniquely positions it as an enabler for other financial institutions seeking to offer card services, alongside serving its own customer base. “The agreement expands our service offerings and strengthens our capacity to serve both customers and partner institutions,” said Abreham Tilahun, CEO of Kacha. As Ethiopia’s first privately owned payment instrument issuer licensed by the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE), Kacha announced it will immediately begin engaging financial institutions interested in leveraging its card-issuance platform. The partnership arrives amid broader modernization efforts within Ethiopia’s national payment infrastructure. EthSwitch, the country’s national payment switch, continues to drive interoperability among participating systems. Its National Payment Gateway—designed to connect various payment channels and facilitate seamless online transactions—was launched in July 2023 and successfully completed its pilot phase in November of that year.