Dashen Bank, Thunes join hands for cross-border payments

Dashen Bank has officially entered into a partnership with Thunes to facilitate fund transfers across the globe to Ethiopia.

The partnership with Thunes, a leading global payments network to facilitate cross-border fund transfers is expected to make it quicker and cheaper to send money to Ethiopia from across the world directly to customers’ bank accounts and Amole wallets.

In a press conference held on Thursday at the Headquarters of the Bank, Thunes and Dashen Bank expressed their commitment to make international money transfers and remittances to Ethiopia fast and in real-time, at more affordable rates using Thunes’ network of sending partners, which operate in more than 100 countries.

Asfaw Alemu, CEO of Dashen Bank said Dashen is pleased to partner with Thunes, a trusted global leader in the cross-border payments landscape.

“Through the new partnership we are aspiring to solve the problems including delays that could occur during money transfer activities,” he said.

This technology-powered solution gives Dashen Bank’s customers fast and convenient access to overseas funds through our bank accounts and Amole mobile wallets, Alemu said, adding that, “It’s another positive step towards our goal of transforming Ethiopia’s financial services sector and delivering innovations to serve our customers’ needs better”.

Dashen Bank also hopes to boost the inflow of remittance and other money transfer in the fresh partnership.

“We will strive to boost the money transfer along with Thunes, and up to now we transferred $600,000 through the new system,” said Asfaw.

The transfer fee is 4.5 percent to Ethiopia while that rate is 7 percent across most African market, according to Joseph Njogu, Vice President of Thunes for East Africa.

The cross-border payment solution is expected to boost financial participation in Ethiopia as more people are expected to open bank and Amole wallet accounts to receive easy overseas payments.

The enhanced remittance service will also improve the inflow of much-needed foreign currency to the country’s economy, where funds sent from abroad are lifeline for communities.

The fresh partnership has been in trial stage for a month. The activities under the trial period have been successful, according to Dashen Bank.

Joseph for his part indicated that partnership with Dashen Bank will enable customers to send cross-border funds directly to Dashen bank accounts and also supports real-time transfers to their mobile money solution – Amole wallets.

“We look forward to working with Dashen Bank to help them simplify cross-border transfers for their customers,” he said.

Currently partners of Thunes include major global players such as Remitly, Ria Financial Services and Western Union, with many more in the pipeline. Customers have benefited from faster payments, with 85% of the transactions to Amole wallets processed in real-time.

“Thunes’ priority is to continually expand our network coverage to give our partners better access and increased payment options,” said Joseph.

Both Dashen Bank and Thunes stressed that they are working hard to protect the system from any possible cyber-attacks.

Founded in 1995 and headquartered in Addis Abeba, Dashen Bank is one of the pioneer banks in Ethiopia in terms of introducing digital financial solutions and banking technologies.

It offers conventional and Sharia-compliant banking services through more than 460 branches. Dashen now has more than 3 million Amole subscribers shortly after it introduced the platform in July 2018.

The Bank works in collaboration with various international money transfer agents and has long established strategic partnership with some of the biggest global card networks including American Express, VISA, MasterCard, and China Union Pay.

Thunes is a company that powers payments for the world’s fastest-growing businesses. Corporates and financial institutions can move funds seamlessly, securely and cost-effectively with Thunes’ well-established, reliable and far-reaching network.

Headquartered in Singapore Thunes is with regional offices in London, France, Shanghai, New York, Dubai, and Nairobi.