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Ethiopia Payouts

ETB payouts to banks and mobile wallets

Use this guide when you want to send ETB payouts to recipients in Ethiopia. Ethiopia supports bank transfers and mobile wallets (Telebirr, M-Pesa, CBE Birr, YaYa).

Overview

  • Currency: ETB
  • Payment location: ETH
  • Supported rails: Bank transfer, Mobile wallet
  • Payment methods:
    • Bank transfer → paymentMethodId: "banktransfer", recipient.type: "bank_account"
    • Mobile wallet → paymentMethodId: "mobilemoney", recipient.type: "mobile_money"

Required fields by rail

Bank transfer

FieldRequiredNotes
accountNumberYesBank account number
bankCodeYesThe code returned by GET /v1/payout/banks?country=ETH
accountHolderNameYesName on the account
countryYesETH
phoneNumberNoInternational format

The bank list also includes Telebirr, M-Pesa, CBE Birr and YaYa. Pay those as a mobile wallet, not as a bank transfer.

Mobile wallet

FieldRequiredNotes
phoneNumberYesMSISDN in international format, e.g. 251911234567
countryYesETH
operatorYestelebirr, mpesa, cbebirr or yaya
nameNoRecipient name

mpesa with country: "ETH" is Safaricom Ethiopia, not Safaricom Kenya. E-Birr (ebirr) and AwashBirr (awashbirr) can be used for collections but cannot receive payouts.

Top-level required fields for every payout: merchantId, merchantReference, destinationValue (with minorAmount and currency), paymentMethodId, paymentLocation, sender (see Sender details), and exactly one of recipient (inline details) or payoutBeneficiaryId (see Payout Beneficiaries). The examples below use an inline recipient.

Sender details (required)

Every payout requires a sender object for KYT/KYC screening. Ethiopia needs no sender fields beyond the standard ones.

FieldRequiredNotes
fullNameYesSender’s full name
identityYesIdentity document type: passport, nationalId, driversLicense, residencePermit, businessRegistrationNumber, or other
identityNumberYesIdentity document number

See Create Payout for the full sender schema.

Account validation

For mobile wallets, account validation checks that the number is in the Ethiopian mobile format: 251 followed by 9 digits, starting with 9 or 7. It doesn’t confirm that the number is in use or who the wallet belongs to, so please confirm recipient details before sending.

Account validation isn’t available for Ethiopian bank accounts yet.

Example requests

Bank transfer

{
  "merchantId": "your-merchant-id",
  "merchantReference": "PAYOUT-ET-001",
  "destinationValue": {
    "minorAmount": 500000,
    "currency": "ETB"
  },
  "paymentMethodId": "banktransfer",
  "paymentLocation": "ETH",
  "recipient": {
    "type": "bank_account",
    "accountNumber": "1000123456789",
    "bankCode": "<code from GET /v1/payout/banks?country=ETH>",
    "accountHolderName": "Abebe Kebede",
    "country": "ETH"
  },
  "sender": {
    "fullName": "Jane Smith",
    "identity": "passport",
    "identityNumber": "A12345678"
  }
}

Mobile wallet (Telebirr)

{
  "merchantId": "your-merchant-id",
  "merchantReference": "PAYOUT-ET-002",
  "destinationValue": {
    "minorAmount": 150000,
    "currency": "ETB"
  },
  "paymentMethodId": "mobilemoney",
  "paymentLocation": "ETH",
  "recipient": {
    "type": "mobile_money",
    "name": "Abebe Kebede",
    "operator": "telebirr",
    "country": "ETH",
    "phoneNumber": "251911234567"
  },
  "sender": {
    "fullName": "Jane Smith",
    "identity": "passport",
    "identityNumber": "A12345678"
  }
}

For M-Pesa, CBE Birr or YaYa, change operator to mpesa, cbebirr or yaya.