LakiPay’s Habtamu Tadesse (2nd left) and Safaricom M-PESA’s Elsa Muzzolini (2nd from right) hold up the signed agreement.

Safaricom M-PESA has teamed up with LakiPay Financial Technologies to grow the digital payments ecosystem and boost financial inclusion in Ethiopia.

Habtamu Tadesse, founder and CEO of LakiPay, and Elsa Muzzolini, CEO of Safaricom M-PESA Mobile Financial Services, signed the groundbreaking partnership, yesterday.

Through this collaboration, LakiPay’s payment gateway will be integrated with M-PESA payments, enabling Ethiopian merchants and consumers to transact using mobile payments.

“This partnership with LakiPay strengthens our efforts to drive financial inclusion and digital transformation in Ethiopia by providing more options for seamless transactions,” said Elsa Muzzolini.

Tadesse added that through this integration, businesses onboarding with LakiPay will benefit from the added capability to accept mobile money, and provide merchants with a modern payment experience for their customers.

“The partnership comes at a pivotal time as Ethiopia continues its push for digital transformation, aiming to strengthen its digital economy and expand access to financial services for both consumers and businesses,” he said.

Over the weekend, Safaricom M-PESA Ethiopia visited Jimma University’s Innovation Incubation Centre to spread the word around the opening of its API to fintech startups. Muzzolini joined Safaricom Ethiopia to head up M-PESA in July last year having spent five years working in mobile financial services and payments at MTN in Uganda and Nigeria.