Gadaa Bank S.C.
From branch-only to six live digital channels, in 24 weeks.
What we built, and what changed.
Gadaa Bank S.C. is one of Ethiopia's newest private commercial banks, founded on the principles of the Oromo Gadaa governance system and licensed by the National Bank of Ethiopia in April 2022. Its mission, financial empowerment for farmers, pastoralists and the unbanked majority, was structurally impossible to deliver through branches alone.
In early 2025, Gadaa Bank engaged Techurate to deploy TigiOS™, a full-spectrum digital banking platform. Within 24 weeks, six channels went live simultaneously: mobile, internet banking, agency banking, USSD *887#, WhatsApp banking, and a reconciliation platform with all 15 NBE regulatory reports automated. Go-live was on time, on budget, and with zero P1 incidents.
For the first time in Ethiopian banking history, a farmer in rural Oromia can open an account, take a micro-loan and repay it, all from a feature phone, in Afaan Oromo.
Outcomes, not projections.
What made this deployment different.
Afaan Oromo, first-class
First Ethiopian bank to offer Afaan Oromo mobile app and USSD. 29% of USSD sessions are now in Afaan Oromo.
Interest-Free Banking, day one
IFB segregation built into the data model from Week 1. Sharia-compliant digital banking available on Day 1 of go-live, not a Phase 2 afterthought.
Agent network scaled 6×
From 380 to 2,400 agents in six months, extending banking into pastoral zones with no prior branch presence.
Zero AML penalties
ETB 1.8 Mn in prior-year penalties eliminated in the first six months of TigiOS operation.
For the first time in our bank's history, every customer, from a farmer in Oromia to a corporate client in Addis Ababa, can access every service of Gadaa Bank without ever visiting a branch.
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