Our company, dedicated to serving a great nation and people by making telecom and digital services widely accessible, continues to strengthen its pivotal role in the country’s comprehensive communication and digital journey. Going beyond standard telecom connectivity services, we are playing a significant role in the digital solutions and digital finance sectors, thereby significantly contributing our significant share to the acceleration of digital transformation nationwide and the realization of an inclusive digital economy.
In this regard, in addition to acquiring more than 57.59 million subscribers, telebirr has been instrumental in pioneering non-collateral digital micro credit and savings services capable of bringing meaningful economic impact to our society. Since its inception, in collaboration with our partner banks, we have disbursed over 31.6 billion ETB in digital loans to 15 million customers and created an enabling environment for more than 4.71 million customers to save over 30.3 billion ETB.
Our company is pleased to announce the launch of ‘Tila’ in collaboration with Awash Bank, the pioneer in Ethiopia’s private banking history, today—a move taken in accordance with our ‘Next Horizon: Digital and Beyond 2028 Strategy’ to widely provide digital finance and device financing services with partner institutions. This service introduces non-collateral credit as well as Device Financing, enabling customers to own smartphones through long-term payment options.
‘Tila’ is a micro non-collateral credit and savings service. It enables individual customers residing in both rural and urban areas, employees of private and government institutions whose salaries are paid via telebirr and Awash Bank, as well as Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and merchants, to access credit services based on an Artificial Intelligence (AI) assisted credit scoring model, simply by being telebirr and Ethio telecom service users.
Digital Financial Services under the partnership agreement, backed by a total annual credit supply of over 2 billion ETB, include:
- ‘Tila’ Micro Saving Service
This service enables customers to save any amount of money from anywhere via telebirr, offering the option to utilize either non-interest-bearing or interest-bearing saving options.
- ‘Tila’ Personal Micro Credit
This service enables individual customers to access micro personal credit of up to 16,000 ETB, determined based on their telebirr transaction history:
- Loans up to 5,000 ETB, repayable within 15 days
- Loans up to 12,000 ETB, repayable within 40 days
- Unsecured microfinance loans up to 16,000 ETB, repayable within 75 days
- Employees’ Salary Loan
This option enables employees of private and government institutions, including Ethio telecom and Awash Bank staff, whose monthly salaries are paid via telebirr and Awash Bank, to access a loan of up to 1 million ETB, equivalent to six months’ salary, to be repaid over 16 months.
- Loan Services for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
This non-collateral micro-credit service enables Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), merchants, and agents to start or expand their businesses and create employment opportunities.
The credit limit is determined based on their telebirr transaction volume:
- One-month loans up to 50,000 ETB
- Three-month loans up to 90,000 ETB
- Six-month loans up to 150,000 ETB — all without collateral
- Device Financing Service
Today our company has reached a device financing agreement with Awash Bank to supply smart devices to citizens through various long-term payment options. The service enables citizens—particularly those engaged in agriculture, as well as employees, merchants, and agents—to acquire various telecom devices bundled with SIM cards on an installment basis.
The device financing service enables citizens who are unable to access digital and digital financial services due to the high cost of smartphones to acquire devices at affordable prices through long-term payment options. Beyond this, the service significantly contributes to making digital financial services inclusive and accessible to the agrarian and pastoralist communities in rural areas where financial services have remained limited.
- Cardless ATM & School Pay
This cardless service was implemented earlier, enabling customers to withdraw cash from Awash Bank ATMs using only telebirr. Designed to ensure customer convenience, the feature has been successfully operational on a trial basis over the past few months.
During this pilot period alone, over 92.6 thousand transactions were recorded, facilitating the withdrawal of more than 97.3 million Birr. Additionally, by integrating Awash Bank’s “School Pay” into the telebirr SuperApp, customers can now conveniently settle school fees.
With the aim of increasing access to digital and digital financial services by driving smartphone penetration, our company recently introduced ‘znexus’ cloud-based smart devices at affordable prices. Moving forward, we will continue to strengthen our efforts to build an inclusive digital economy by deepening our partnerships with financial institutions and introducing innovative digital finance and device financing services designed to bridge the usage gap and improve the day-to-day lives of our communities.
Ethio telecom and Awash Bank
November 20, 2025
