Sheba Credit is building Ethiopia's first private AI-powered credit bureau — the financial identity infrastructure that 135 million people deserve.
Ethiopia has over 135 million people, the second largest population in Africa. Yet fewer than 5% have any formal credit history. Not because they are uncreditworthy — but because the infrastructure to see them has never existed.
Lenders can't serve people they can't assess. People can't build wealth without access to credit. Sheba Credit closes that gap.
We don't wait for bank statements. We use what people already have — mobile money history, savings behaviour and agricultural records — and turn it into a verifiable credit identity.
Telebirr payments, Ethio Telecom history and savings patterns become credit signals. No bank account needed.
Every credit file is anchored to Ethiopia's national digital ID. One person, one verified credit identity — fraud-proof from the ground up.
We show users exactly what drives their score and how to improve it. Transparency isn't just ethical — it's what the NBE expects.
Hamid Ali is a British-Ethiopian entrepreneur with direct experience of the financial infrastructure gap in East and West Africa. After witnessing the barriers that prevent ordinary Ethiopians from accessing credit, he founded Sheba Credit to build the infrastructure the system never provided.
Sheba Credit is built to comply with NBE Directive CRB/02/2019 — designed to operate as a licensed bureau, pending NBE licensing — with financial inclusion at its core.