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      Tsedale G/egziabher W/giorgis

      Tsedale G/egziabher W/giorgis

      Director, Payment Scheme

      EthSwitch S.C

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      Tsedale G/egziabher is Director of Payment Scheme at EthSwitch, Ethiopia’s national electronic payment switch, and serves as Ethiopia’s country delegate to the Black Swan Summit Cambodia 2026. Prior to her current role, she was Director of Business Analysis and Digital Transformation, where she was responsible for analysing new business opportunities and driving innovation across the national payments ecosystem.

      With more than 17 years of experience in the government and financial sectors, specifically on the technology side, she specialises in the design, governance, and scaling of national digital payment systems. As a project manager, she led the development and implementation of Ethiopia’s instant payment system, the selection of cross-border payment initiatives, and international card acceptance programmes. She has successfully directed large-scale digital transformation projects involving requirements analysis, enterprise systems architecture, stakeholder engagement, regulatory compliance, and the delivery of secure, salable, and interoperable payment solutions.

      Her work focuses on building resilient, sovereign-controlled digital payment infrastructure that strengthens financial inclusion, interoperability, and regional connectivity. At the Black Swan Summit Cambodia 2026, Tsedale will share operational insights from Ethiopia’s practical experience in designing, scaling, and governing national payment systems, contributing to discussions on digital public infrastructure and the transfer of proven models.

      Speaking at the summit

      • 1:30–3:00pmMon 16 NovRoundtableOpen

        Bakong - Sovereign Rails

        Who Owns the Rails? Governance, Access and the Economics of Shared Infrastructure

        RoundtableOpen

        About this session

        Shared payment infrastructure creates value precisely because competitors use the same network, but that makes ownership and funding contentious. Banks may resist paying for infrastructure used by newer competitors. Fintechs may resist access terms controlled by incumbents. Governments may finance the network and still face pressure over unequal access or rising operating costs. Different markets have taken different approaches, including central-bank ownership, industry-owned switches and open-source infrastructure. The roundtable compares these models through three questions: who owns the rail, who gets access and on what terms, and who pays to maintain and upgrade it. It then examines how those choices change once infrastructure crosses borders and sovereignty becomes shared rather than purely national.