Awash Bank of Ethiopia profit increases by 900 million birr

Awash Bank Share Company of Ethiopia, one of the first private banks in Ethiopia after the current regime came to power in 1991, announced before tax profit of 4.2 billion birr ($113.5 million at current exchange rate) during the budget year concluded June 30, 2020 (2019/20).

The profit of the Awash Bank before tax has increased by 900 million birr ($24.3 million at current exchange rate) from the previous budget year. This is announced by Tsehay Shiferaw, President of Awash Bank before the annual shareholders meeting expected to take place in a few months. He made the announcement delivering a Happy Ethiopian New Year 2013 message on Monday evening on the state broadcaster ETV.

“Compared to our last year profit, this year profit is up by 900 million birr,” he said, recalling the profit of the Bank for the 2018/19 budget was 3.3 billion birr before tax. The past years annual reports of Awash Bank shows that its profit has been growing fast over the past few years. The 3.3 billion birr profit before the tax Awash Bank has reported in 2018/19 was 70 percent up from 2017/18 profit.

Indicating that Awash Bank has been the top private bank in Ethiopia for the past five year, Mr. Tsehay stated that the Bank has opened 56 new branches and introduced different digital banking services. He indicated that Awash Bank has set a vision to become one of the top ten strong banks in Eastern Africa by 2025.

Awash Bank was established by 486 founding shareholders with a paid-up capital of birr 24.2 million and started banking operations on Feb 13, 1995.
As of end of June 2020 the number of shareholders and its paid-up capital increased to over 4369 and birr 5.87 billion, respectively. Likewise, as of end June 2020, our total assets reached birr 95.6 billion with 466 branches.

Last year the bank has also spend some 20 million birr supporting various projects as part of discharging its corporate social responsibility.
In Ethiopia currently there are 16 private banks including Awash Bank, which entered the market in 1995. Meanwhile over 55 percent market share of banking business in Ethiopia is dominated by the state owned biggest bank – Commercial Bank of Ethiopia.

Banking, insurance and micro-finance business is restricted to Ethiopian nationals only until the country recently announced opening its door for Ethiopians with foreign nationality passport. Following the new directive of the government, which also allowed the formation of Islamic banks in Ethiopia, currently about a dozen banks are under formation.