The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) is taking decisive steps to safeguard the nation’s rapidly expanding digital financial landscape. Under its newly drafted National Digital Payments Strategy (2026–2030), the central bank has announced plans to establish a dedicated Cybersecurity and Fraud Directorate.
This structural overhaul comes in response to rising security vulnerabilities, highlighted by a staggering 1.3 billion birr lost to fraud across the financial sector in 2024 alone.
While Ethiopia has celebrated massive strides in financial inclusion—with mobile money accounts surging from 12.2 million in 2020 to 139.5 million by 2025—this exponential growth has simultaneously attracted malicious actors.
According to NBE findings, attempted cyberattacks targeting public and private institutions spiked by 115% during the first half of 2024. Compounded by a digital literacy gap where nearly two-thirds of adults report not knowing how to use mobile money, these escalating threats pose a serious risk to public trust and the long-term viability of the digital economy.
The newly proposed directorate is designed to address these vulnerabilities head-on by centralizing defense mechanisms, deploying shared artificial intelligence-based fraud detection tools, and enforcing strict national cybersecurity frameworks in coordination with the Information Network Security Administration (INSA).
Furthermore, the strategy introduces clear consumer protection and liability guidelines—such as addressing Authorised Push Payment (APP) risks—to ensure victims have reliable avenues for recourse.
By holding all providers to strict, standardized fraud reporting compliance, the NBE aims to drive fraud down to an optimal 0.0008% of total transaction value by 2030. Central bank officials emphasize that building a secure, trusted, and resilient ecosystem is a mandatory prerequisite for ensuring that Ethiopia’s digital transformation ultimately benefits all citizens safely and equitably.
