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Consortium to initiate Ethiopia's first ATM switch

May 30, 2012

Three Ethopian banks have formed a consortium, Premier Switch Solutions SC, that will launch a 60-ATM and 300-POS network on a shared switch.

According to an article at 2merkato, the venture is a first for the country. The network will be activated at the beginning of the next Ethiopian fiscal year, the story said, with a debit card program expected to launch six months later. The consortium also plans to expand the number of ATMs and POS devices in the network over the course of the year.

The consortium was formed in 2009, with members including Awash International Bank, United Bank and Nib Bak. The partners told 2merkato that they were continuing to seek new members to expand the switch network. The switch is being built by Moroccan IT firm S2M.

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