{"id":13955,"date":"2025-12-02T05:30:55","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T08:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/?p=13955"},"modified":"2026-04-19T11:15:58","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T14:15:58","slug":"m-pesa-lehulum-launches-in-ethiopia-boosting-access-to-mobile-payments-and-legal-sports-betting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/m-pesa-lehulum-launches-in-ethiopia-boosting-access-to-mobile-payments-and-legal-sports-betting","title":{"rendered":"M-PESA LeHulum launches in Ethiopia, boosting access to mobile payments and legal sports betting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Telco-agnostic mobile-money platform enables seamless transactions, supporting financial inclusion and legal sports betting across Ethiopia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Ethiopia.- Ethiopians can now participate in legal online sports betting more easily with the launch of <strong>M-PESA LeHulum<\/strong>, a telco\u2011agnostic <strong>mobile-money platform<\/strong> that works across <strong>all networks<\/strong>. The service allows users to send and receive money, pay bills, top up airtime and<strong> link wallets<\/strong> to bank accounts via <strong>smartphone<\/strong>, verified with a <strong>national ID<\/strong>, making digital <strong>transactions<\/strong> and access to legal sports betting simpler and more convenient for users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ethiopia only legally <strong>licenses<\/strong> sports betting and lottery games, while other forms of online gambling, including casinos and poker, remain<strong> illegal<\/strong>. M-PESA LeHulum can facilitate <strong>deposits<\/strong> and <strong>withdrawals<\/strong> for legal sports betting, among other digital financial services. The platform is expected to<strong> simplify transactions<\/strong>, raising the chances of higher <strong>participation<\/strong> in licensed betting platforms while ensuring <strong>compliance <\/strong>with national regulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Elsa Muzzolini<\/strong>, CEO of M-PESA Ethiopia, said: \u201cM-PESA represents our commitment to building a digital financial <strong>ecosystem<\/strong> that unlocks <strong>opportunity<\/strong>, connects communities and provides accessible financial services for everyone, everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Developed entirely in-house by <strong>Safaricom <\/strong>Ethiopia\u2019s technology teams, the platform integrates with ETHSwitch, enabling <strong>seamless transfers<\/strong> between bank accounts and other wallets. Users can register with any <strong>phone number,<\/strong> verify their identity through the national Fayda Digital ID eKYC system and begin transacting within minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Rapid growth and comprehensive services<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Since its<strong> commercial<\/strong> introduction in August 2023, M-PESA Ethiopia has grown rapidly, reaching 10.8 million <strong>registered customers<\/strong> by December 2024. The platform supports sending and receiving money, bill and merchant payments, airtime top-ups, QR payments and access to the M-PESA Overdraft service (Errif Be M-PESA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ethiopia\u2019s young, <strong>mobile-first population<\/strong> and growing internet penetration of around 21 per cent make the country a fertile environment for digital financial activity. Studies indicate strong <strong>engagement<\/strong> with sports betting among urban youth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As Ethiopia expands its <strong>digital infrastructure<\/strong>, the government faces the dual challenge of promoting financial<strong> inclusion<\/strong> while monitoring potential risks associated with online betting. M-PESA LeHulum opens doors for <strong>convenient<\/strong> digital transactions, but its impact on online gambling will depend on the chances created by regulatory decisions, enforcement practices and the willingness of<strong> operators <\/strong>to integrate mobile-money solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n<div id=\"see-also-container\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"see-also-label\">See also:<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"related-article\">\n\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"related-article__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/04\/tax-calculator-1024x680-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"related-article__text\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"see-also-label-strong\">See also:<\/span> <a href='https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/ethiopias-gambling-tax-shake-up-could-push-players-offshore-analysts-warn'>Ethiopia\u2019s gambling tax shake-up could push players offshore, analysts warn<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Telco-agnostic mobile-money platform enables seamless transactions, supporting financial inclusion and legal sports betting across Ethiopia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2809,"featured_media":6375,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"M-PESA LeHulum, a telco-agnostic mobile-money platform, has launched in Ethiopia, enabling seamless digital transactions and facilitating deposits\/withdrawals for legal online sports betting. Developed by Safaricom Ethiopia, the platform integrates with ETHSwitch and uses national ID for eKYC, aiming to boost financial inclusion and participation in licensed betting while ensuring regulatory compliance.","focusai_entities":"M-PESA LeHulum, M-PESA Ethiopia, Safaricom Ethiopia, ETHSwitch, Fayda Digital ID, Elsa Muzzolini","focusai_location":"Ethiopia","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.95), regulator (0.92), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.95), product_ux (0.75), tech_data (0.88), payments_fraud_aml (0.93), investor_analyst (0.94), supplier_vendor (0.85), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Impact on GGR?","query":"What are the projected Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) impacts for licensed sports betting operators in Ethiopia following the widespread adoption of M-PESA LeHulum for transaction processing?"},{"label":"Regulatory Framework Evolution?","query":"How might the Ethiopian regulatory framework for online sports betting evolve to address the increased participation and potential risks facilitated by enhanced mobile money accessibility?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[60013,60022],"tags":[78],"class_list":["post-13955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-africa","category-finance-news","tag-sports-betting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2809"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13955"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13966,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13955\/revisions\/13966"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}