ADDIS ABABA (Awash Bank)–Awash Bank signed a tripartite agreement with De la Phone Technologies (FloCash) and Ethiopian Airlines which lets the three parties team up for the collection of flight payments.
The agreement was made as on 18 October 2018 at Awash Bank Headquarters in Addis Ababa. The agreement stipulates that the parties have agreed on the direct integration between FloCash System and the Bank’s Core Banking System for seamless operation of booking and collection of flight payments of Ethiopian Airlines.
The background of the agreement states that the Ethiopian Airlines opted to have an integration through FloCash setup with Awash Bank as a payment option for payments to be made by customers to the designated Ethiopian Airlines’ bank account to be opened at Awash Bank for flight ticket purchases. Further, the agreement stipulates that customers who are interested in purchasing flight ticket through the payment platform can make payments at any of the Bank’s branches or use the mobile banking to complete the payment process and the bank is obliged to confirm the execution of payments successfully made on the platform.
The agreement has also detailed that the core responsibilities of FloCash would be handling the queries and complaints of customers in relation to bank refund and, more importantly, notifies the Ethiopian Airlines booking system of payment and signals confirmation for the issuance of the ticket.
In addition, the agreement further detailed that FloCash shall liable for exposing the bank’s system to any third party and shall bear all liabilities arising from wrong actions.
Meanwhile, it was also stipulated in the agreement that FloCash has agreed to cooperate with Awash Bank in facilitating the services to be provided under the agreement and in recruiting any other airlines to the bank’s integration facility as well.
Furthermore, FloCash is obliged to send a weekly sales report for the bank’s transactions to Ethiopian Airlines comprising detailed information regarding sales date, amount, passenger name record (PNR), ticket number, bank reference code, settlement amount, settlement date, and settled account number.
From the bank’s side, the agreement states that the bank is obliged to confirm immediately after the customer made payment through Awash Bank branches or using mobile banking services of Awash Bank. The bank has also agreed to provide 24 hour services, 7 days in a week and give support for any request forwarded in relation to payment by its contact center using the designated email account and telephone lines.
The bank is also obliged to inform system outage or interruption within 15 minutes using the aforementioned cases. Furthermore, the bank is responsible to provided and facilitate the collection of funds, transfer of funds, sharing information as well as other value added services as described in the agreement.
The bank is also responsible for providing daily transaction reports to be automatically delivered to the parties.
Similarly, the Ethiopian Airlines has agreed to establish hosting channels and maintain its booking channels and make available types of products and services it offers to its customers.
In the end, the parties have agreed to ensure the availability of internet connections to undertake necessary communications among the parties and to promote the services to the public and ensure partnership and mutual benefits.
The agreement also detailed that the parties have agreed to protect the data as per the obligation enshrined in Ethiopian and other applicable laws.
The agreement was signed on behalf of Awash Bank by Ato Yohannes Merga, Chief Information Officer of Awash Bank, on behalf Ethiopian Airlines by Ato Laeke Tadesse, Chief Information Officer, and on behalf of De la Phone Technologies (FloCash) by Mr Dave Kiros, Country Managing Director.
Source: Awash Bank