Ethiopia’s Dashen Bank Partners With Accion and Mastercard to Connect Small Businesses to the Digital Economy With New Innovation Hub

Dashen Bank, one of Ethiopia’s leading private banks, has partnered with global nonprofit Accion and the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth to better serve small businesses with digital financial services customized to meet their financing needs. Accion is supporting Dashen Bank to build an innovation hub that aims to expand digital banking services to micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) through a range of new products and a focus on women-owned businesses.

Ethiopia’s nearly two million MSMEs are important drivers of its economy, yet only 6 percent of microenterprises and 1.9 percent of small enterprises have access to formal credit. The financing gap in the MSME sector of the country is estimated to be $4.2 billion3. Unemployment, low incomes, and a lack of financial education remain key reasons for a lack of access to formal financial services. Moreover, only 39 percent of women — compared to 55 percent of men — have an account at a formal financial institution, preventing them from accessing the evolving digital financial ecosystem and contributing to the country’s economic growth.