List of all banks in Ethiopia

All Banks in Ethiopia 2023

Ethiopia’s History with Banking

Ethiopia introduced herself to the Banking sector in the early years of the 19th century. The first Bank in Ethiopia was the Bank of Abyssinia which was established in 1905 with an agreement between the Ethiopian Government and The National Bank of Egypt. The Bank was permitted to process (selling shares, accepting deposits, issueing currency notes and effecting payments in cheques) which was then fully closed. This led to the emerging of Bank of Ethiopia which has currency note issues, coins and commercial banking as a faction. Bank of Ethiopia did not function for much longer; and following the war between Ethiopia and Italy, the Bank was closed and some Italian Banks emerged.

During the continuous ongoing war, different Banks emerged and reformed again and again, and finally, the departure of the Italians and the strengthening of the government led to the reemerging of the Bank of Ethiopia. After two decades of functionality, Bank of Ethiopia was classified as a National Bank and Commercial Bank of Ethiopia. On the year of 1963 E.C and with in the next few years the first private Bank in Ethiopia, “Addis Ababa Bank”, was established.

Ethiopia has gone under so many revolutionary years when it comes to the Banking industry and has grown in it all banks in Ethiopia has passed this journey one way or an other. The formation of private Banking and the strengthening of the sector has gotten in good shape throughout the years and following this year of development, Ethiopia has now close to 30 Banks including the oldest state-owned government bank: Commercial Bank of Ethiopia.

What are the main services provided by all Banks in Ethiopia?

Even though all banks in Ethiopia work depending on their own organizational rules and regulations, there are types of services that are provided by all banks as common respect to the difference in amounts and curators, most Banks share services like:

• Different types of saving (with interest and interest-free)
• Diaspora account
• Loan services
  1. Car loan
  2. Mortgage/home loan
  3. Personal loan

Other than the government Bank, the rest are private Banks that are built locally and among those private Banks, three of them are fully-fledged interest free Banks which are:-

• ZamZam Bank (The first interest-free Islamic Bank in Ethiopia)
• Shabelle Bank
• Hijira Bank

Ethiopia started Interest-free Banking too early from the establishment of these banks with a single window service system, but now, it is being provided on a full organization level with these upcoming new banks and the sector is expected to grow fast.

All banks in Ethiopia are administrated by the National Bank of Ethiopia, the Bank gives rules and regulations to the Banks starting from their establishment, and forms all the requirements including the minimum Bank establishment finance and license.