Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

About SWIFT Program

The SWIFT (Skilled Workforce for Innovation and Financial Sector Transformation) Program in Ethiopia is a partnership between the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) and the Mastercard Foundation aimed at equipping 100,000+ young people in Ethiopia, 70% of them women, with market-relevant skills and capabilities that will enable them to drive inclusion, innovation and transformation in the country’s financial sector. The SWIFT Program targets young people who are either already employed or looking for employment in the financial sector and need upskilling and/or reskilling.

The lead implementing partner for SWIFT is BKP Economic Advisors (BKP), an economic research and consulting firm based in Germany, while the Ethiopia Institute for Financial Studies (EIFS), part of the NBE, is the delivery institution for the training and education activities. Running for four years (2025-29), the Program will have the following five main components:

2025–2029 Skilled Workforce for Innovation and Financial Sector Transformation

SWIFT is building Ethiopia’s next-generation financial sector workforce.

The SWIFT Program equips Ethiopia’s young workforce with market‑relevant financial sector skills, prioritizing inclusion, innovation, and national transformation.

Target
100,000+
young people

About the program

The SWIFT (Skilled Workforce for Innovation and Financial Sector Transformation) Program in Ethiopia designed by the National Bank of Ethiopia in partnership with Mastercard Foundation aimed at equipping, through the Ethiopia Academy of Finance (EAF), about 116,000 young people with market-relevant skills and capabilities that will enable them to drive inclusion, innovation and transformation in the country’s financial sector. The SWIFT Program targets young people, 70% of them women, who are either already employed or looking for employment in the financial sector and need upskilling and/or reskilling.

Running for four years (2025-29), the Program has the following five main focus areas:

Partners
NBE, Mastercard Foundation
Delivery
EAF, NEWFin pathways
Implementation
BKP Economic Advisors

Core components

  • Expanding, revising and developing modern financial sector education curricula and training modules;
  • Establishing a training curricula-oriented research and knowledge hub to inform financial sector policy and practice aimed at financial inclusion and industry innovation;
  • Establishing online learning platforms and digital tools to make financial training accessible to underserved youths;
  • Supporting NEWFin’s (Network of Ethiopia’s Women in Finance) to support its Young Women Professionals’ Development Program (YWPDP), networking and communication activities
  • Institutional strengthening of EAF including investments on training IT equipment, as well as technical support to enhance communications, monitoring and evaluation, gender mainstreaming, safeguarding and environmental frameworks

Partners​

NETWORK OF ETHIOPIA'S WOMEN IN FINANCE

Knowledge Hub

Knowledge is not content.
On the shelf.

One of the main outputs of the SWIFT Program is a Knowledge Hub designed to keep learning closely connected to real-world change in Ethiopia’s finance sector.

Research Practice Curriculum Sector impact

Working with banks, microfinance institutions, capital market operators, and academia, the hub turns evidence into practical insights and continuously updates training content across all SWIFT academies.

Watch this space. Research themes and outputs will be published as they become ready.
Knowledge Hub learning environment
How We Work

A focused, sustainable approach, built with partners.

SWIFT takes a focused and sustainable approach grounded in partnership. We combine technical assistance, capacity building, knowledge exchange, and evidence-based analysis to support reform over time. SWIFT runs five targeted interventions addressing root causes.

Learning and collaboration

LMS

Support EIFS in designing, developing, and implementing a modern, scalable digital learning ecosystem that delivers high-quality, competency-based financial training digital platform prioritizing the establishment of the LMS core backbone and foundational digital learning capabilities including remote and hybrid learning, while enabling progressive expansion of advanced analytics, AI-enabled functionalities, workforce linkage, and broader ecosystem integrations over the course of the Program.

Online learning Al-enabled Digitization

Training

Expand access to market-relevant financial-sector learning for young people, with a strong focus on women, through a combination of in-person, hybrid and online learning to be delivered through six sectoral academies at the National Bank of Ethiopia’s Ethiopian Academy of Finance, complemented by specialized/thematic training, career orientation and trainer development.

Scale Quality Access

Research

Lead ecosystem-based applied research to identify pressing workforce and financial product and service challenges, bringing together financial institutions, academia, and research and development partners to make the Ethiopia Academy of Finance a center for developing, testing, and promoting practical solutions that inform industry practice, policy, and training.

  • Outputs systematically integrated into training content.
  • Publicly available research products for wider impact.
Evidence Integration Innovation Hub

Institutional Strengthening

Cross-cutting support to strengthen the organizational effectiveness of the Ethiopian Academy of Finance including investments on training IT equipment, communications, monitoring and evaluation systems, as well as technical support to mainstream gender, safeguarding and environmental advisory.

Institution Standards Sustainability

Supporting NEWFin

As the only entity dedicated to the empowerment of women finance professioinals, the SWIFT Program collaborates with the Network of Ethiopia’s Women in Finance (NEWFin) – an initiatitive of the National Bank of Ethiopia – to support its Young Women Professionals’ Development Program (YWPDP), networking and communication activities.

Women’s Financial Inclusion Capacity Building
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