The National Bank of Ethiopia has issued a Payment System Operator licence to CNETPay Financial Technologies S.C., covering payment-gateway and point-of-sale services. The approval follows an application submitted in September 2024 and forms part of the country's regulated digital-payments framework.
Pilot programme before commercial launch
The licence, reported as NPS/PSO/031/2026, does not by itself permit an immediate commercial rollout. CNETPay must first complete a three-month pilot and meet the central bank's remaining operating conditions.
Those conditions include periodic performance reporting, documented operating policies, risk-management arrangements and a government-issued system-security clearance. Final permission to begin commercial services depends on satisfying the requirements, rather than simply completing the passage of three months.
| Item | Reported position |
|---|
| Authorised service categories | Payment gateway and POS operations |
| Pilot period | Three months |
| Subscribed capital | ETB 33.5 million |
| Paid-up capital | ETB 21.9 million |
Background to the company
CNETPay is part of CNET Technology Group. In information supplied to Ethiopian Business Review, the group described a 24-year operating history in Ethiopia and said it had provided enterprise software and sales-automation systems to more than 7,000 medium and large businesses.
The company also reported that its gateway had processed more than 18 billion birr in transactions over the preceding year. That is a company-reported transaction-volume figure, not a statement of CNETPay's revenue, profit or customer deposits.
The regulatory milestone creates a route for the business to expand its payment services, subject to the pilot and final approvals. Merchants and customers should distinguish the grant of the operator licence from the separate authorisation to start full commercial operations.
Sources: Ethiopian Business Review, StockMarket.et.
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