Ethiopia’s Top Three Payment Gateways Appeal to National Bank Over Tax Enforcement Actions, Citing Legal Violations

EBR_News May 31, 2026

Three of Ethiopia’s largest licensed payment gateway operators, Chapa Financial Technologies, ArifPay Financial Technologies, and SantimPay Financial Solutions, have jointly written to the Governor of the National Bank of Ethiopia, Eyob Tekalign (PhD), urgently requesting intervention over enforcement actions taken by the Ministry of Revenue against their companies.

A copy of the letter, dated 29 May 2026, was exclusively accessed by Ethiopian Business Review. It is copied to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, the Minister of Justice, and the Minister of Revenue, and describes the enforcement as procedurally premature and in violation of Ethiopian law.

The three companies state in the letter that the Ministry of Revenue instructed commercial banks to enforce direct tax collection against their accounts while formal administrative review and appeal proceedings which they had initiated under Ethiopian tax law remain active and unresolved.

They argue this directly contravenes Chapter Five, Sub-Article 2 of the Federal Tax Administration Proclamation No. 983/2016, which explicitly prohibits the collection of disputed tax debts while a taxpayer’s appeal is pending before the Tax Authority, a Federal High Court, or the Federal Supreme Court. All three firms say they have formally initiated such proceedings and that enforcement under these circumstances is not only procedurally premature but expressly prohibited under the law.

The consequences described in the letter are immediate and significant. The companies report operational paralysis across their platforms, freezing of critical business accounts, severe disruption to merchant settlement operations, liquidity constraints threatening business continuity, and workforce reductions affecting skilled Ethiopian professionals.

The three companies collectively state they have processed over 200 billion Birr in transactions to date, providing payment infrastructure for Ethiopian Airlines’ local debit card collections, the Fayda National ID ecosystem, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam donation platform, and a range of government ministries and public institutions. All three hold the Silver Level Certificate of Recognition from the Ministry of Revenue for timely tax compliance within three years of operation.

The letter follows a months-long period of heightened scrutiny across Ethiopia’s fintech sector. On 29 December 2025, the Ministry of Justice issued a directive instructing all commercial banks to freeze accounts linked to ten payment gateway operators including Chapa, ArifPay, SantimPay, AddisPay, FenanPay, LakiPay, Kacha, and Sinan Pay and to submit full transaction histories, KYC documentation, share capital details, and foreign currency balances to federal authorities.

In their letter to the National Bank, the three companies request that the regulator facilitate immediate dialogue among relevant institutions, ensure that due process protections are respected and enforcement suspended while appeal procedures remain ongoing, prevent further operational disruption to licensed payment system operators, and safeguard the stability of Ethiopia’s digital payment infrastructure.

They describe themselves as infrastructure providers embedded within the national digital economy rather than ordinary private businesses, and warn that weakening this sector creates systemic risks for digital commerce, government collections, merchant services, and financial inclusion.

The National Bank of Ethiopia and the Ministry of Revenue had not issued a public response at the time of publication.

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