Banking and Financial Services Sector

[abesha]

I thought we could post news and other info about the boom in private banks.

List of private banks (both established and in the process)

1. Awash International Bank (1994)
2. Dashen Bank (1995)
3. Bank of Abyssinia (1996)
4. Wegagen Bank (1997)
5. United Bank (1998)
6. NIB Bank (1999)
7. Lion International Bank (2006)
8. Oromia International Bank (2007-2008)
9. Zemen Bank (2008)
10. Birhan International Bank (2009)
11. Bunna International Bank (2009)
12. Abay Bank (2010)
13. Debub Global Bank (under formation - 2010-2011)
14. Enat Bank (under formation - 2010-2011)
15. Hawassa Bank (under formation - 2010-2011)
16. Zam Zam Bank (under formation - 2010-2011)
17. Hewan Bank (under formation - 2010-2011)
18. Tsehay International Bank (under formation - 2010-2011)
19. Mercato City Bank (under formation -2011)
20. Kokeb Bank (under formation -2011)
21. Afri Agro-Industrial Bank (under formation -2011)
22. Addis International Bank (2011)

[abesha]

Zemen Bank
http://zemenbank.com/

They actually look very modern to me, from their services to their marketing.

[abesha]

Oromia International Bank
http://www.orointbank.com/

They have over 26 branches already, after just a year.

[Ahadu]

Originally Posted by abesha

Oromia International Bank
http://www.orointbank.com/

A very boring web-site. Looks so amateurish!
The site has clickable "Exchange Rate - Cash : Transact " -which, BTW, doesn't work. I am not insane to do an online business there.... Good try though.

[abesha]

New Dawn for Women?




Meaza Ashenafi (left), founder and former executive director of the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association, is now the chairperson of the committee which initiated the idea of starting a women's bank, currently under formation. Last Friday evening, November 13, 2009, the initiators invited prominent businesswomen to a consultation meeting held at the Belgium Embassy. Rahel Zewde, wife of Gunther Sleeuwangen, Belgian Ambassador to Ethiopia, is one of the ten women initiators who are involved in different business sectors. The initiators, who submitted their application to the National Bank of Ethiopia more than a week ago, are waiting for its approval to open a blocked account and start selling shares to the public. They expect the approval to come within a week or two.

http://addisfortune.com/news_radar.htm

[abesha]

Gesture of Optimism





The Hawassa Bank, one of the newest entrants into Ethiopian banking bloc, held a function at the Intercontinental Hotel on January 14, 2010. During the evening, board members saw to the promotional prerequisites of the establishment process of the bank under formation. The bank has registered 30 million Br capital since November 21, 2009 and expects to collect 75 million Br within the coming ten months. In the photo above, Legesse Tekeher (left), former governor of the National Bank of Ethiopia and current advisor for the establishment process of Hawassa Bank is conversing with Tadesse Haile, state minister for Trade and Industry (centre) and Solomon Afework, chair of the steering committee for the bank.

http://addisfortune.com/news_radar.htm

[yosef]

Cooperative Bank of Oromia

http://www.coopbankoromia.com.et/

CBO is established to provide all banking service and products. It was registered on 29 October 2004 in accordance with Article 304 of the commercial code of Ethiopia and was licensed by National Bank of Ethiopia as per proclamation No. 84/1994 that provides for licensing and supervision of banking businesses. Currently 38 branches are in operation.

here is a list of branches: https://birrituexpress.biz/viewcolle...lpayingagent=6





there are other ones that have been around, they arent new or anything tho

Wegagen
Dashen
Awash
Abyssinia
United
NIB

[abesha]

Wegagen investing in IT

Wegagen Bank, one of the most technologically savvy banks in Ethiopia has signed a multi-million dollar deal with Infrasoft Technologies Limited (InfrasoftTech), one of the global leaders in the banking software products and solutions space. The major IT investment made by Wegagen will transform the enterprise level IT landscape of the second most profitable bank in Ethiopia.

Under the deal signed, InfrasoftTech with support from Fairfax Technologies, a local Systems Integrator, will implement OMNIEnterprise, InfrasoftTech’s proprietary solution at Wegagen. The modules to be implemented include software technology for Retail Core Banking, Internet Banking, Mobile/SMS Banking, Credit Management system and Anti-money Laundering System on the OMNIEnterprise platform.

OMNIEnterprise will transform the way Wegagen conducts its banking operations, and it will enhance the basket of offerings the bank currently provides to its customers. The transformational IT initiative taken up by Wegagen reinforces its vision of ‘Being the most preferred Bank in Ethiopia’.

This deal will reinforce InfrasoftTech’s focus and commitment on the African banking and financial services industry. For the Year 2008, InfrasoftTech is globally ranked #3 in Core Banking Technology Vendor Sales League of IBS, UK. The OmniEnterprise solution by InfrasoftTech was also ranked by Gartner in 2009, in its Magic Quadrant for International Retail Core Banking technology providers.

Fairfax Technologies on its part is focused on building local capacity by hiring local talent and training skilled resources, ensuring that technology projects are long term locally supported. This effort will achieve InfrasoftTech’s vision and commitment to build a strong base for the Ethiopian market for future support of its implementations. Some of the local resources are currently deployed on the project and they will shortly be sent to Mumbai, to undergo extensive training at Infrasoft’s HQ training centre. Our aim is to provide the majority of the support locally, unlike the other international core banking products that have already been implemented in the country. (Capital)

http://www.capitalethiopia.com/index...ntent&Itemid=3

[Jember]

I find it baffling or even hilarious to see business in Ethiopia such as Zemen Bank use English as the language of communication on their websites, ATM machines, check cards etc. . .This is while the overwhelming majority of Ethiopians living in urban areas are not fluent in english, and will have a hard time understanding the English verbage. Let alone Ethiopians in Ethiopia, I remember reading somewhere 30% of the Ethiopian cab drivers in DC are functionally illiterate in English.

It seems to me Ethiopian businesses choose to display signs exclusively in English or provide their services in English b/c they think they would appear *cool* or *modern*. This retarded way of thinking counters any sort of business logic. Anything that targets the consumers of the businesses should use the language of the consumers. And in the case of Ethiopia, this does not have to be exclusively Amharic. A business deep in an Oromo wereda, should use Afan Oromo as the main mode of communication. English and Amharic can be used as secondary languages.

With that said, I find it hard to see Ethiopian businesses succeed in any sustainable manner if they can't even see they need to use their consumer's language to communicate. As a matter of fact, it seems to me foreign companies such as Microsoft, which want to do business in Ethiopia, have done a better job at it.

[abesha]

So tell me, if you don't know English, how would you even log into www.zemenbank.com? It's written in English in case you haven't noticed. I think they should have Amharic (plus other languages) as an option, but it's ridiculous to suggest they should write in Amharic on their site because the Ethio customers don't know English. You need to know it to even access the site.

I do agree about the checkcards, etc. Keep in mind though that there will be customers (Ethiopian-Americans, etc and foreigners) who won't be able to read it if there isn't some English.

[ddeneau]

The main web site is in English but all of the services offered (ATM, Internet Banking, etc.) are all in Amharic AND English. Addis Ababa is a major international diplomatic city, 3rd largest in the world, and is very advantageous to their economy to have a presence of English. They still deeply respect the local languages and culture.

[arzaranh]

the following are various home pages from around the world. i just did a quick wiki search and found a bunch of banks. of the links that took me directly to the english page (less than half) finding the indigenous language page did not even take 30 seconds. when i went to the Ethiopian banks listed in this thread only one of them had Ge'ez fidels anywhere on the page and that was only because fidels are apart of the corporate logo.
i see nothing wrong with having an english page IN ADDITION TO one written with fidels but none of these banks do that, and honestly i would be surprised to find that that is not the norm for the Ethiopian banking industry.

JAPANESE
http://www.boj.or.jp/
http://www.mizuhobank.co.jp/
http://www.bk.mufg.jp/
http://www.smbc.co.jp/index.html
RUSSIAN
http://www.cbr.ru/daily.aspx
http://www.bspb.ru/
http://www.alfabank.ru/
GREEK
http://www.bankofgreece.gr/Pages/default.aspx
http://www.alpha.gr/page/

shall i find more?

[yosef]

well speaking for the bank I posted, Cooperative Bank of Oromia, the language used is Oromifa which is Latin script.....so yeah, there is a good chance you didnt see alot of Geez on that page (maybe in the title and a few other places but thats about it)

It has a "ENGLISH | OROMIFA" setting on the top of the page....very easy to see and click to choose between the English or Oromifa

[arzaranh]

Originally Posted by yosef

well speaking for the bank I posted, Cooperative Bank of Oromia, the language used is Oromifa which is Latin script.....so yeah, there is a good chance you didnt see alot of Geez on that page (maybe in the title and a few other places but thats about it)

It has a "ENGLISH | OROMIFA" setting on the top of the page....very easy to see and click to choose between the English or Oromifa

yes that was the one. i think everybody already knows what i have to say about Oromifa....

[Simfan34]

Originally Posted by arzaranh

yes that was the one. i think everybody already knows what i have to say about Oromifa....

That is?

[arzaranh]

Originally Posted by Simfan34

That is?

if you've paid attention to me in particular for the past few years you would know the answer, but to put it simply, i am against the use of latin characters for the language.

[Simfan34]

Originally Posted by arzaranh

if you've paid attention to me in particular for the past few years you would know the answer, but to put it simply, i am against the use of latin characters for the language.

You'll have to forgive me, I haven't been here the past few years. I agree with you wholehartedly. Viva አፋዓን ኦሮኦሞ!

[abesha]

Berhan Bank Launches Computerised Network

ATM, SMS banking now part of burgeoning services

Berhan International Bank SC (BIB) has started a fully computerised broadband network system at its eight branches.

The bank officially began operations at its first three fully networked branches on October 3, 2009.

Currently, it has raised its number of branches by five additional networked branches (for a total of eight) and plans to expand the branches to 10 by establishing two more branches.

The broadband Internet banking service system enables bank customers to have SMS message reports of their deposited capitals.

The system will also enable customers to access their accounts without bringing their bank book or presenting an ID.

“The automated teller machine (ATM) service will speed up the banking service and reduce wasting the time of the banker and the customer,” Solomon Mamo, director of Information Systems for Berhan, told Fortune.

The customer of one branch is also a customer of every branch of Berhan, enabling them to deposit and withdraw money from any branch, because customer data is accessible from any branch, according to Belachew Bogale, president of the bank.

“Customers can access their accounts without coming in to the bank branches,” Belachew told Fortune.

This technological project was finalised within a one month period. The system’s hardware and software were purchased from a United Kingdom IT company called Neptune. The bank declined to name the financial figures involved to make the purchase of the hardware and software.

“The bank has made a non-disclosure agreement because of a promotional discount that was provided to it,” Girum Tariku, spokesperson of the bank, told Fortune.

The bank lends money based on collateral and, on the track record and financial capability of the borrowers, according to Belachew.

The bank has 6,200 shareholders, more than 95 million Br in paid up capital, and 137 million Br in registered capital.

It employs 150 employees and has international banking service deals with Commerz Bank (Germany), Standard Chartered Bank (United States of America), Naticsis Bank (France), UniCredito Bank (Italy) and Banque Indosuze Mer Rouge (Djibouti), according to Berhanu.

http://addisfortune.com/Berhan%20Ban...%20Network.htm

[yosef]

Lion Int’l Bank Appoints New President

By WUDINEH ZENEBE

Lion International Bank (LIB) appointed Daniel G. Egziabher, marketing, planning and research department director, to be the acting president on Monday, March 15, 2010, the same day it accepted the resignation of its president Meressa G. Mariam.

Daniel has also become the bank’s vice-president for finance, human resources, and marketing, a new position that has just been created, in addition to the position of the vice-president for credit, IT and branch affairs, currently occupied by Aklilu Wubet.

Daniel has an Economics degree from Mekele University and has been in banking for 14 years. He used to be head of the Mekele Branch, before he moved to Addis Abeba nine months ago with a promotion.

FULL ARTICLE

[yosef]

more from Berhan Bank


Berhan plots bid for HQ

By Muluken Yewondwossen

The newly formed private bank, Berhan International Bank (BIB), is hoping a land lease auction announced by the Addis Ababa City Administration will result in it accessing a plot to construct its headquarters. Belachew Bogale, president of BIB, told Capital that the new bank's priority is to set up its own headquarters. According to the president, the management has formed a committee to monitor land availability. "Currently, the heads of the management and board of directors are considering various opportunities to secure plots in the town, including the lease auction," Belachew said.

A few weeks ago, the city administration announced land lease auctions based on the city's master plan for any interested parties.

The bank that opened its first branch around Bole International Airport early October last year now has eight outlets, including five that opened in the last week. Three of these are out of the capital in Hawassa, Bahir Dar and Nazreth, and the other two are in Kera and Kality areas of Addis Ababa. These two additions means there are now five branches in Addis Ababa. This budget year, which ends in July, the bank plans to open 10 branches.

FULL ARTICLE