Sometimes, with effort, but for a short trip it's usually not worth it. Telebirr and M-Pesa Ethiopia are built for people with an Ethiopian SIM and birr to load, and neither operator publishes rules for tourists. Mobile money has grown fast in Ethiopia, so it's a fair question. Here's how the wallets work, when one might make sense, and how to keep payments simple instead.

The easiest fix for most visitors is to have fewer payments to make in the first place. With Ethiopia Driver you pay us in US dollars before you arrive, and we pay your hotels, domestic flights and driver costs locally in birr.

What are telebirr and M-Pesa?

Telebirr is Ethio Telecom's mobile money service, launched in May 2021. For the 2025/26 financial year it had 60.6 million customers, more than 410,000 agents and more than 440,000 merchants. You use it through the telebirr app or by dialling *127#, and it lets you send money, pay merchants and bills, and buy airtime.

M-Pesa Ethiopia is run by Safaricom Ethiopia. It went live on 17 August 2023, about three months after the National Bank of Ethiopia licensed it, offering transfers, merchant payments, airtime and the ability to receive money from abroad. It's a separate Ethiopian service, not the same account as M-Pesa in Kenya.

Can a foreign visitor open a telebirr account?

On paper, perhaps. Anyone aged 18 or over can register if they meet the know-your-customer rules: an active mobile number, a recent photo and a valid ID. A valid passport is among the accepted IDs, alongside Ethiopian documents such as a kebele ID.

Registration also asks for details such as your place of birth and current residential address, and a basic account is meant to be introduced by an existing account holder. There are no published rules for foreign nationals and no telebirr product aimed at tourists. In practice you'd first need an Ethio Telecom SIM registered to your passport, then ask at an Ethio Telecom shop whether they'll register you.

Can a tourist use M-Pesa in Ethiopia?

The same logic applies. M-Pesa Ethiopia is for Safaricom Ethiopia customers, so you'd need a Safaricom Ethiopia SIM first. There's no published tourist version or public rules on foreign visitors, so ask in a Safaricom shop when you buy your SIM.

Does Kenyan M-Pesa work in Ethiopia?

Not as a way to pay in shops. The Kenyan and Ethiopian services are separate. Since October 2024, customers can send money from M-Pesa Kenya to M-Pesa Ethiopia wallets through Safaricom's international remittance service. That's useful if someone in Kenya wants to send money to a person with an Ethiopian account, but there's nothing to show a Kenyan wallet can pay an Ethiopian merchant directly.

How would you put money into a wallet?

This is the real sticking point. There are two ways to add money to telebirr: pay in cash at an authorised agent or Ethio Telecom sales point, or transfer from a linked Ethiopian bank account. So you still need birr, or a local bank account, to begin with.

There's no published way to top up telebirr from a foreign debit or credit card. Telebirr does offer a virtual Visa card number, but for now it can only receive remittances; it can't be used to pay. Telebirr and M-Pesa Ethiopia can both receive money sent from abroad through licensed international transfer partners.

What about cash and cards?

For most visitors, cash is still the answer. Ethiopia is a cash-based society, and card payments and ATMs are limited and unreliable, especially outside cities. Carry enough birr before you leave Addis Ababa, and keep exchange receipts, because you'll struggle to change leftover birr back without one. You can bring no more than 3,000 birr into or out of the country.

Rules on carrying foreign cash have been changing. To be safe, declare foreign currency above USD 10,000 (or the equivalent) when you arrive and keep the declaration.

This is where paying ahead helps. When we book your hotels and domestic flights in birr and you pay us one amount in dollars, the big bills are already settled before you land. You need far less cash for the rest of the trip and fewer trips to the ATM.

Are there other mobile wallets?

Yes. Banks run their own wallets too; the best known is CBE Birr from the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, which is tied to a CBE account. That puts it even further out of reach for a short-term visitor. Card use in Ethiopia is low, and cash and mobile money are the dominant ways people pay.

If you want to try, how would you go about it?

1. Buy a SIM from the matching operator. An Ethio Telecom SIM for telebirr, or a Safaricom Ethiopia SIM for M-Pesa, registered to your passport at an official shop.
2. Ask about wallet registration at the same time. Staff can tell you whether they can register a visitor and what they need from you.
3. Install the official app. Download the telebirr or M-Pesa Ethiopia app from your phone's official app store; avoid look-alike apps.
4. Cash in a small amount. Hand birr to an authorised agent, who loads it onto your wallet. Start small until you're sure it works for what you need.
5. Spend it down before you leave. A leftover wallet balance is of little use once you're home.

So is it worth it for a tourist?

For a week or two, usually not. You'd spend time registering, still need cash to load the wallet, and gain little over paying with that cash directly. It could help in a few situations:

• Longer stays, such as volunteers or people on extended work trips who pay lots of small bills.
• Diaspora visitors whose family abroad already sends money to Ethiopian wallets through a transfer service.
• Receiving money from someone in Kenya, via M-Pesa's Kenya-to-Ethiopia transfers, if you hold an M-Pesa Ethiopia account.

Mobile money also needs a working network. Internet and phone services are sometimes cut during unrest, and wallets stop working along with everything else, so keep cash as your backup.