Ethiopia’s mobile money landscape just crossed a historic threshold. On December 1, 2025, M-PESA Ethiopia launched M-PESA LeHulum (“የሁሉም”—”for all”), a telco-agnostic wallet that finally severs mobile money from SIM cards.
For the first time, any Ethiopian with any phone number, including Safaricom, Ethio Telecom, or MVNO, can download an app, authenticate via Fayda Digital ID, and start transacting within minutes.
In a country with 107 million registered mobile connections but long held back by network silos, LeHulum is more than a product.
It’s an infrastructure reset that could redraw Ethiopia’s digital finance map. It directly challenges Telebirr’s dominance with 34.3 million users and $12.3 billion in annual transactions by unlocking a wider population: the millions who were excluded simply because they were tied to a competing SIM.
M-PESA Ethiopia CEO Elsa Muzzolini commented:
“M-PESA LeHulum removes barriers and creates financial opportunities for all Ethiopians.”
Backed by ETHSwitch integration for instant bank-to-wallet flows and a remittance market worth $4.2 billion, Ethiopia now has its first truly open, universal mobile money app.
The Visionaries Behind Ethiopia’s Landmark Moment
The LeHulum story is inseparable from Safaricom’s high-velocity push into Ethiopia. After winning the country’s first private telco licence in 2022, Safaricom Ethiopia spent two years expanding into 147 towns, securing a $150 million mobile money licence in 2023, and piloting M-PESA by August that year.
The challenge was clear: Telebirr, Ethio Telecom’s state-backed wallet, had a two-year head start and a national footprint. The opportunity was clearer: Ethiopia’s population of 120 million strong was already accustomed to digital payments but trapped in closed ecosystems.
LeHulum is the unlock. Developed entirely by Ethiopian engineers, it was built to bypass SIM-binding altogether.
It’s a standalone app that is Android-first, with iOS coming, that treats a phone number as an identity, not a network allegiance.
READ ALSO:How M-PESA and Ethiopia Powered Safaricom’s Record Half-Year
How LeHulum Works
LeHulum’s appeal is its simplicity. You download the app, enter any +251 number, verify your identity using Fayda’s national biometric system, and your wallet activates instantly.
ETHSwitch pipes you straight into Ethiopia’s banking grid, so P2P transfers, merchant payments, and bill settlements behave like native transactions.
Here’s the functional core of LeHulum:
| Feature | How It Works | Everyday Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Send & Receive Money | Wallet-to-wallet, phone number, QR; ETHSwitch for bank links | Faster, cheaper remittances; near-instant domestic P2P |
| Merchant & Bill Payments | Pay via QR, taps, and in-app utilities | Cashless shopping in Addis, easy bill settlement |
| Overdraft (Errif Be M-PESA) | Instant short-term credit after verification | Helps traders cover daily liquidity gaps |
| Security | Biometrics, device binding, full M-PESA encryption | Zero-downtime reliability with global-grade safeguards |
The economics are designed for mass adoption: fees under 1%, instant settlement, and no SIM dependency. With smartphone penetration rising 20% annually, the app bypasses USSD latency and expands Ethiopia’s digital wallet universe overnight.
Inside Ethiopia’s Digital Wallet Wars
Telebirr is the incumbent giant: 34.3 million users, deep government backing, and a two-year lead in loans and savings. But its weakness has always been architecture: it is tied to Ethio Telecom’s SIM.
LeHulum is built to attack that weakness head-on. Telco-agnostic onboarding could draw 20–30 million additional users across Safaricom, Ethio Telecom, and future MVNO networks.
Safaricom’s network expansion since 2022 gives LeHulum national reach, especially in towns underserved by USSD-based solutions.
Meanwhile, Ethiopia’s $4.2 billion remittance pipeline stands as the ultimate prize. Incoming diaspora money often gets trapped in slow, expensive corridors.
A universal wallet, bank-linked and ID-verified, becomes the fastest path to bring remittance inflows on-chain, on-wallet, and on-demand.
A Universal Wallet for 120 Million Ethiopians
By making the mobile money network neutral, identity-driven, and interoperable, M-PESA Ethiopia may do for Ethiopia what the original M-PESA did for Kenya in 2007: jumpstart a financial inclusion turnaround at a national scale.
If adoption matches ambition, LeHulum could connect tens of millions to affordable digital finance, move billions through interoperable rails, and lift Ethiopia’s mobile money penetration by 30–35% over the next few years.
In a country where 90% of the economy is informal, that’s not just convenience; it’s economic infrastructure.
Ethiopia’s wallet era just went universal.
M-PESA Ethiopia Overview
The M-PESA Ethiopia app is gaining traction as more users adopt mobile money services in the market, with features that support M-PESA Ethiopia withdrawal, easy access through the M-PESA Ethiopia app download option, and secure transactions via the M-PESA Ethiopia login portal.
Customers can register using their M-PESA number and enjoy services offered by Safaricom Ethiopia, including quick access through the M-PESA Ethiopia USSD code. For assistance or enquiries, users can reach the M-Pesa Ethiopia call centre for support.
Ronnie Paul is a seasoned writer and analyst with a prolific portfolio of over 1,000 published articles, specialising in fintech, cryptocurrency, climate change, and digital finance at Africa Digest News.
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