Santim Pay Financial Solutions S.C., a fintech company based in Ethiopia, has inaugurated Ethiopia’s first point-of-sale (POS) machine assembly plant and domestic payment switch system, aiming to fill long-standing gaps in hardware availability, merchant-side adoption, and local infrastructure for digital payments.

The new plant, unveiled at the Ethiopia Museum of Science, is expected to produce up to 3,000 POS terminals daily. The machines is assembled by Ethiopian experts and operate in five languages using locally developed software tailored to banks and businesses.

Santim Pay’s CEO, Tinsae Desalegn, said the factory has already been supplying POS devices to banks and various enterprises for the past three months. The company plans to expand distribution to neighboring African markets. Importantly, local production is expected to lower device prices by up to 10%, making digital payment tools more affordable for merchants.

Despite growing digital transactions — estimated at 7.5 million per day with a value exceeding 26.5 billion birr — Ethiopia still has fewer than 20,000 active POS terminals. Many face service disruptions, in part due to maintenance gaps. Santim Pay established a dedicated repair center alongside the factory to address these issues and improve uptime.

Innovation and Technology Minister Belete Molla highlighted the factory’s role in supporting the Digital Ethiopia 2025 agenda. “This facility strengthens our domestic digital payment ecosystem and helps reduce foreign currency outflows,” he said.

The factory’s integrated payment switch, powered by global platform OpenWay, enables secure credit and virtual card transactions, promising faster, more interoperable payment solutions.

Ethiopia’s digital payments market is forecast to hit $21.65 billion this year, growing at 26% annually through 2030. POS payments will account for a substantial portion, reinforcing the need for scalable, local manufacturing capacity.