Ethiopia’s Banking Apps 2025: Winners Ranked by Installs, Ratings & Reliability











Ethiopia’s Banking Apps 2025: Winners Ranked by Installs, Ratings & Reliability

The quiet revolution in Ethiopian finance is not unfolding in boardrooms but in pockets. The nation’s money now travels by tap and QR code, and the contest is being fought on screens that fit the palm. The rules are simple and unforgiving. First, win the crowd—on Android, where most people are. Then keep the demanding few—on iPhone, where expectations run high and word spreads quickly, especially across borders. This report reads the market by presence before polish: red charts show Android performance, ordered by install bands; blue charts show iPhone ratings (installs aren’t published). What emerges is less a feature race than a test of calm: which app lets a user log in, check, and move money without fuss—every time.

Seen through installs, the pecking order sharpens. At the summit is CBE (Android 5M+ installs, ≈36.8k reviews). Behind it, Awash (1M+), then a 500k+ pairing—BoA (Apollo) and Dashen. The 100k+ middle class—Amhara, Oromia, Nib, Hibret, Bunna, Wegagen, Enat, Siinqee, Berhan—is busy and improving. Newer names cluster in the long tail, praised early; the test is growth without wobble.

Deep analysis: what the data actually says

The numbers are unglamorous but decisive. Users reward apps that disappear into the day: open, log in, check a balance, pay a bill. Everything else—QR flair, ticketing, clever bundles—matters only if those first minutes feel inevitable.

Android — where the market lives

Android is the main stage. Across 21 bank apps here, the simple average sits around 4.29★; when weighted by how many reviews each app has, it softens to about 4.21★. That tells you big audiences are a tougher crowd. At the top of the pyramid, CBE dominates with 5M+ installs and a steady 4.2★. The second tier is split. BoA (Apollo) (4.2★; ~6,230 reviews) and Dashen (4.1★; ~2,020) are close on stars, but BoA’s larger review base makes its score harder to jolt. In the 100k+ band, Amhara and Oromia set the pace at 4.5★, while Nib, Hibret, and Bunna hold at 4.4★. Berhan trails at 3.7★, a reminder that small frictions—timeouts at login, retries on transfers—drain goodwill.

What to watch: CBE is the outlier on scale. In the 500k+ duel, BoA (Apollo) vs Dashen, the stars are close but the confidence differs; more reviews make a steadier score. In the 100k+ “middle class”, the spread nears a star—from Amhara/Oromia (4.5★) to Berhan (3.7★)—evidence that steadiness, not novelty, separates winners.

Ratings alone flatten nuance. The bubble chart below adds two checks: how many users (x-axis, install band) and how anchored the score is (bubble size = review count). The best place is high and right—many users, high satisfaction, and enough reviews to believe the number.

The picture: CBE sits far right with a large bubble at 4.2★. Amhara and Oromia hover higher at 4.5★. Nib, Hibret, Bunna hold a respectable 4.4★. Berhan sits lower at 3.7★. Early bright spots—Tsehay (4.6★), Gadaa (4.8★)—are high but left; their challenge is growth without wobble.

iPhone — fewer voices, higher bar

On iPhone, the sample is smaller but the bar is higher, and many reviews come from the diaspora. Averages sit roughly a star lower than Android. CBE lands near 3.3★ (≈2,200 ratings), weighed down by strict SIM checks and patchy access on Wi-Fi. Zemen sits around 3.4★ (≈47), pulled by effortful logins. The exception is Abay: a rare parity at 4.5★ on both platforms—proof that a careful iOS build can hold its own.

Diaspora — the hidden majority of complaints

Look closely at the sharper iPhone critiques and a pattern repeats: Ethiopians abroad, on home Wi-Fi or roaming, blocked by SIM-in-device checks or vague “network errors.” This group is vocal and influential. A handful of small fixes change the mood fast: allow Wi-Fi logins bound to the device (not the SIM), keep Face/Touch ID as the default path, explain outages in plain speech (“busy—try again in 30 seconds” beats “error”), and expose a “diaspora support” route inside the app. The payoff shows up in the blue bars within a few releases.

Branch activation — an old habit that costs new stars

Nothing dates a digital app faster than a sign that reads “visit your branch.” CBE and Dashen have both been associated with in-person steps—activation codes, counter resets. In a city with traffic, and for a diaspora thousands of kilometres away, that rule is a tax on goodwill. The repair is simple but uncomfortable for old processes: remote onboarding with device binding, biometric login, and in-app recovery that still works after a phone change. Banks that make this shift gravitate to the 4.4–4.5★ band, because they remove the moments that cause public rants.

Features vs reliability — sequence wins

Most banks now tick the basics—inter-bank transfers, QR, airtime top-ups. The differences show up where the grid is patchy: self-registration and diaspora access. Amhara, Nib, Hibret, Bunna, and Abay (all “Yes” on self-registration) cluster at 4.3–4.5★. Where “No” appears, stars sink despite rich menus elsewhere. The order matters: make opening, logging in, and recovering dull—in the best sense—before reaching for school fees or ticketing. Users remember relief more than features.

Bank-by-bank nudges. CBE: biggest win sits on iPhone—allow Wi-Fi logins with device binding, trim the journey from open to balance, and translate errors into plain speech. Awash: consolidate to a single flagship; you need a thicker body of ratings to steer by. BoA (Apollo): fix crashers and OTP entry and you’ll see a lift without adding anything new. Dashen: retire branch resets and aim for a 99.5% successful login rate; sentiment follows. Berhan: raise crash-free sessions and simplify the first tap to balance; reaching ~4.1★ is realistic. Zemen: keep your security, remove the acrobatics—lean on the device and server, not more codes. Abay: keep parity; don’t bloat the iOS surface area. Tsehay and Gadaa: protect the cold start as you scale.

Wallets & rails — how habit forms

Wallets set the daily rhythm of payments; rails decide whether they’re “on the way home.” The charts below show why some brands feel everywhere even when bank apps rate well.

Telebirr dominates pavements and screens: 5M+ installs, 4.4★, ~63.5k reviews. M-Pesa runs leaner—1M+—but similarly polished at 4.4★ (~27k reviews). Ebirr is practical at 4.2★ with 1M+. Kacha is admired early—4.6★ with 50k+ installs.

M-Pesa leads on iPhone—around 4.6★ (≈386 ratings). Telebirr is lower at roughly 3.6★ (≈1.2k), largely due to login rules and “little hassles.” For the diaspora, a smooth iPhone day is the difference between praise and churn.

Telebirr fields a vast footprint—about 320,000 agents and 310,000 merchants. M-Pesa is smaller but expanding; Ebirr leans on bank partners. Software delights; rails convert. Ubiquity forgives many small sins.