Ethiopia: NBE Requirements for Information Technology Management of Microfinance Institution (Directive No. MFI/33/2022) including Interoperability requirement enter into force

On 2 April 2025, the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE)'s Requirements for Information Technology (IT) Management of Microfinance Institution Directive No. MFI/33/2022 enter into force. Microfinance institutions were required to implement the requirements for automation of core business processes (Article 5) and set up a disaster recovery site with adequate detachment from the main IT site (Article 6.7) by 1 April 2025. All other provisions of the Directive became effective on 1 April 2023. The directive specifies that the automated core business processes of microfinance institutions must be interoperable. This requires that the systems for customer due diligence, loan processing, loan disbursement and collection, loan portfolio management, deposit collection and withdrawal, accounting, and local money transfer services are fully integrated.