By Ayda Million

U.S.-based BirrituExpress.com claims to provide a secure, quick, cost-effective and easy way to remit money abroad.

“Sending money to Ethiopia does not have to be difficult or expensive. Your family, friends or business associates cannot wait weeks to receive funds, and cannot afford the expensive fees, complications and insecurities typical of traditional money remittance services. They can count on BirrituExpress.com, built by Ethiopians for the Global Ethiopian Community,” says General Manager Getachew Jirane.

This is my first in a series of articles introducing pioneering Ethiopian owned businesses. The following is a brief description of the company as stated on its web site:

BirrituExpress.com is the service that brings much needed value to money remittance to Ethiopia currently dominated by expensive and inconvenient companies. Much value is lost to the Ethiopian Community by hidden fees and exchange rate spreads that add cost to the sender, the recipient and the economy of Ethiopia. We aim to recover that lost value to the benefit of our customers and our beloved country, and serve our clients with an economical yet rich service. Over $370 million is remitted to the country annually, and BirrtuExpress brings transparency and low cost to funds sent through our system.

Convenient and Easy – our innovative site allows you to send money to Ethiopia from the comfort of your home or workplace or from any computer with an Internet connection. There are no long lines and no need to interrupt your busy day to travel to a merchant, agent or bank to send money. Simply log on to www.birrituexpress.com, register as a user, enter your recipients contact address and the amount you wish to send, and send the money. It’s that easy!

Fast and Flexible – You can charge the amount you would like to send to your credit card or debit card or deduct the money directly from your bank account. You can also use our exchange rate calculator to determine the amount your recipient will be receiving in birr. Your remittance will be processed instantly over the Internet and the money disbursed to your recipient thru cash pick-up at our affiliates The Cooperative Bank of Oromia/Ethiopian Postal Service or direct deposit to the beneficiaries account thru our affiliate bank within 48 to 72 hours. The recipient does not need to have a bank account or computer access. You can verify the status of your money transfer at any time by logging into our website. We will immediately send you confirmation regarding each step of your transaction until completion via email.

Secure and Regulatory Compliant – In addition, we have taken the anxiety out of international money transfers by incorporating industry-leading security features as the Strong 128 bit SSL encryption into the process while funds are handled by an FDIC-insured bank in the US and disbursed by the most accessible and trusted financial institutions in Ethiopia. Furthermore, all money transfers are completely regulatory compliant. This means, unlike many traditional remittance service providers, BirrituExpress.com remittances are processed in adherence with United States regulatory compliance requirements (U.S. Patriot Act, Anti-Money Laundering, Bank Secrecy Act, OFAC, NACHA, CHAPS and BACS processing policies), as well as the Laws of Ethiopia and Regulations of the National Bank of Ethiopia.

Low Cost – Typical transactions cost much less than western and traditional competitors operating in Ethiopia. You receive the most favorable exchange rate making the most out of every dollar for our esteemed customers.

(Ayda Million is the editor of Ethiopedia.com, an online encylopedia of Ethiopia)