Payment Instrument Issuer (Amendment) Directive No. ONPS/09/2023 (Ethiopia)

The Payment Instrument Issuer (Amendment) Directive No. ONPS/09/2023, issued by the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) in late 2023, amends the Licensing and Authorization of Payment Instrument Issuers Directive No. ONPS/01/2020. It forms part of Ethiopia's accelerating financial-sector liberalisation, alongside the amendment of the National Payment System Proclamation (by Proclamation No. 1283/2023) and the wider opening of banking and telecoms to foreign participation, and updates the rules governing non-bank mobile money and e-money issuers. Scope and applicability: the Amendment applies to payment instrument issuers (PII) licensed or seeking licensing under the 2020 Directive. It revises specific provisions of the principal Directive rather than replacing it; the 2020 Directive remains in force as amended. Core changes: the Amendment confirms and recalibrates the prudential and market-access framework for PIIs. It maintains a minimum paid-up capital of ETB 50 million (or its equivalent in foreign currency), expressly contemplating capital contributed in foreign currency, a signal of the NBE's intent to permit and attract foreign investment into the payments space. It adjusts ownership, shareholding and participation rules to reflect the liberalised environment, and updates related conditions on governance, services and operational requirements for issuers. By allowing foreign-currency capital and broadening permissible ownership, the Amendment is a key plank in Ethiopia's move away from its historically closed posture toward an open, competitive digital-finance market. Supervision and enforcement: the amended regime continues to be supervised by the NBE, which licenses PIIs, monitors compliance, and may impose corrective measures, conditions, suspension or revocation. Because it operates as an amendment, this Directive must be read together with Directive No. ONPS/01/2020 and the National Payment System Proclamation No. 718/2011 (as amended by Proclamation No. 1283/2023). It illustrates the brief's caution that Ethiopia's historically closed financial posture has materially changed in recent years.

1. 1Amends (does not replace) the Payment Instrument Issuers Directive No. ONPS/01/2020, which remains in force as amended
2. 2Maintains minimum paid-up capital of ETB 50 million, expressly permitting equivalent capital in foreign currency
3. 3Adjusts ownership, shareholding and participation rules to facilitate foreign investment in payment instrument issuers
4. 4Updates governance, services and operational conditions for PIIs in line with liberalisation
5. 5Part of a 2023 reform package alongside amendment of the National Payment System Proclamation (Proclamation No. 1283/2023)
6. 6NBE retains licensing, supervisory and enforcement powers over amended PII regime