From Vision to Impact: How Michu Digital Loan Transformed 1 Million Lives in Ethiopia

Financial Inclusion in Ethiopia: A Story of Growth, Leadership, and Innovation

When MSMEs have access to productive credit, they don’t just survive; they thrive. Jobs are created, businesses expand, and entire communities prosper.

For years, Ethiopia’s small business owners struggled to access financing. Lack of collateral, complex lending processes, and limited financial infrastructure kept many out of the formal credit system.

But today, Ethiopia is rewriting that story and Michu Digital Lending is at the heart of this transformation.

📌 The Journey of Michu: A Story of Growth

When Cooperative Bank of Oromia launched Michu Digital Lending , the goal was clear—make finance accessible, simple, and impactful for MSMEs. The results have been extraordinary.

📈 Key Milestones:

· June 2024 – Michu had disbursed 4.3 billion birr, supporting thousands of small businesses.

· October 2024 – The impact nearly doubled to 8 billion birr, reaching more entrepreneurs and underserved communities.

· February 2025 – Michu has now surpassed 16.5 billion birr, empowering 1 million MSMEs and individuals across Ethiopia.

This isn’t just a focused financial intermediation program—it’s a financial inclusion revolution.

At the heart of this success is intentional leadership, alternative data-driven intelligent decisioning, and collaboration between a bank, fintech, and regulator.

📌 Leadership That Drives Impact: Cooperative Bank of Oromia 'sCommitment to MSMEs

Financial inclusion doesn’t happen by accident. Coopbank made MSME lending a core priority, not an afterthought.

· They collaborated with Kifiya Financial Technology PLC to build Michu as a scalable, accessible digital financial services platform for MSMEs of all sizes.

· They invested in reaching MSMEs, ensuring financial services were within reach.

· They aligned Michu with Ethiopia’s National Financial Inclusion Strategy, transforming vision into reality.

This is what happens when a bank commits to intentional, strategic lending—financial access expands, businesses grow, and the economy strengthens.

📌 Kifiya Financial Technology PLC : Powering Ethiopia’s Digital Lending Ecosystem

Michu’s success is built on a strong AI-powered technology backbone. At Kifiya, we are proud to power financial institutions like Coopbank with:

· AI-driven credit decisioning, making uncollateralized digital lending possible.

· Alternative data insights, enabling financial institutions to assess risk effectively, create appropriate and relevant financial products to MSMEs.

· Embedded finance solutions, allowing seamless loan origination, disbursement, and repayment.

Michu proves that when banks embrace AI, ecosystem-driven finance, and digital transformation, financial inclusion accelerates.

Mission of our Intelligent Financial Services are quite clear: to enable financial institutions to build the future of finance; one that is intelligent, inclusive, and transformative.

📌 Policy Matters: How the National Bank of Ethiopia Enabled This Success

Michu’s impact extends beyond Cooperative Bank of Oromia and Kifiya Financial Technology PLC , it represents a major milestone in Ethiopia’s national financial inclusion efforts.

📈 Our strategic partnership advances Ethiopia’s National Financial Inclusion Strategy:

📌 Program A3 – Expanding finance for women entrepreneurs

📌 Program A4 – Strengthening financial access points for underserved communities

📌 Program B2 – Driving productive credit expansion for MSMEs

🔹 Michu also drives Ethiopia’s Digital Payments Strategy:

📌 Action 21 – Launching digital lending solutions for financially excluded populations

The National Bank of Ethiopia’s forward-thinking policies have created an enabling environment for financial inclusion to move from policy to reality.

This is a perfect example of what happens when policymakers, banks, and fintechs work together with a shared vision.

💡 Michu is not just a bank’s success or a fintech partnership win; it’s Ethiopia’s success.

The future of finance in Ethiopia is intelligent, inclusive, and built for growth. And this is just the beginning.

Financial inclusion is not just a goal—it’s a shared responsibility. As MSMEs move toward their expected 46% contribution to Ethiopia’s GDP, what more can banks, fintechs, and regulators do to ensure they have continuous access to digital financial services that drive sustainable growth? Let’s discuss.

Drop your thoughts in the comments, share this post, and let’s shape the future of finance together. 🚀

Munir Duri Abdi Fekede Aman Semir Hayat Abdulmalik Ashenafi Abate Kinfemichel Abraha CDFP Teddy T. Endashaw Tesfaye Jotework Ayele

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