Awash Bank flexes its financial muscle to prepare for eventual competition with foreign investors with a decision to raise its paid-up capital 55 billion Birr (approximately $1 billion US dollars)
The decision comes a few months after the government decided to open up Ethiopia’s banking sector to foreign investors.
Also read: Ethiopian entrepreneurs graduate from Alibaba Netpreneur
The bank’s shareholders approved the plan to increase the capital in the next five years during their meeting at Hilton Addis on Saturday.
The figure surpasses the state-owned Commercial Bank of Ethiopia’s $800 Million paid-up capital, making Awash the most capitalized bank in the land.
Awash, established in 1995 with 24.2 million Birr capital raised from 486 shareholders, already surpassed the 5 billion minimum threshold set by the central bank ahead of the June 2023 deadline.
Profit Hit Another High
Awash Bank posted 7.45 billion Birr in Annual Gross Profit from its operations in the 2021/22 financial year.
“The amount has shown a 2.83 billion birr or 55% growth as compared to the previous year,” Dibaba Abdeta (Ph.D.) told the shareholders who met at Hilton Addis.
Dibaba further reported that Awash’s total deposit reached 152 Billion Birr, showing a 41% (or 43.9 Billion Birr) jump from the previous year.
The total assets of Awash also grew by 54.7 billion Birr or 42% to reach to 183.4 billion Birr.
Also read: Sesame seeds – Ethiopia’s white gold
“These achievements has helped Awash to further cement its top position among the private banks in Ethiopia,” said Dibaba.
The Bank currently has a network of 725 branches across Ethiopia, employing more than 18, 000 workers and serving more than five million customers.
