Amole, M-BIRR and HelloCash Announce Customer Support Efforts in Response to COVID-19

Amole, M-BIRR and HelloCash, the leading mobile money, ePayment and commerce platforms in Ethiopia have committed to support customers in financial distress, making available more ways to transact and cutting transaction costs on mobile as part of the
measures to assist as the country grapples with the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic. Over five million combined customers stand to benefit from this initiative according to the press release Shega received.

A statement from the three services said, “ We have a role to continue supporting our communities, the economy and stimulating growth. The best support we can give to the community as our economy starts to slow down is to save our customers money and keep social distancing using electronic transaction to protect the spread of the Coronavirus. vWe have been in crises before, however, this virus does not discriminate, it’s an attack against humanity but if we pull together as a community, even in this environment, we will win together.”

Amole’s is making transactions free on all services including Person to Person transfer. In Addition Amole will be offering a 5% instant cashback on any purchases at over 8,000 participating businesses including ecosystem partners ( eCommerce and Mobile Apps ) that accept Amole starting today through April 30th , 2020. Amole’s 2.1 million customers are expected to benefited from this initiative.

These measures are in addition to no-transaction fee of bank to mobile wallet and mobile wallet to bank transactions.

M-BIRR service will also refund all fees for money transfer, bill payment, and electronic purchases of goods and services to all registered customers during the month of April.

By refunding money transfer fees, 1.6 million M-birr users will be able to send cash to impacted family and friends. Recipients can collect cash from over 14,000 locations in both urban and rural areas throughout the country.

HelloCash service is offering a free sanitary mask to all HelloMarket online orders from March 28, 2020 till the end of April.

In Additon, HelloCash is availing all ancillary Hello Services within the HelloCash ecosystem to allow end-to- end contactless and cashless transactions to take place.

This announcement represents an important collaboration between the financial institutions and technology providers who offer these services across Ethiopia. Together, these parties are co-funding this initiative to help combat the effects of COVID-19.