Ethiopia Commercial bank to open in Juba next month

By Tesfa-alem Tekle

January 21, 2009 (ADDIS ABABA) – The State-owned Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) will open a branch in Juba the capital of southern Sudan next month, Sudan Tribune has learnt.

The Public Financial Supervisory Agency (PFESA) approved a total sum of 15 million US Dollars to the state-owned Commercial Bank of Ethiopia to enable the Bank to open a branch office in Juba.

The approval is based on the Bank’s request will make the nation’s biggest Bank the first bank to open branch in foreign land after Ethiopia shut down one it had in Djibouti in 2004.

According to South Sudan banking regulations a minimum of 15 million USD founding capital is required for a foreign firm to enter the industry in the region.

The Branch bank that took name, CBE-Southern Sudan will go functional in February with 15 staff members for a start up and it will provide services of Deposit, foreign exchange, letter of credit, export transactions among others.

The new branch, CBE-South Sudan sees a 100 Million dollar returns during the first two-years of work period in Juba.

The state-run Commercial Bank of Ethiopia founded in 1942 was the first institution to break a new ground of modern banking in Ethiopia.

The CBE which enrolls more than 8,000 staff members runs 205 branches in different parts across the nation, 45 being in the capital Addis Abeba, the Bank owns assets worth 49 billion Br in the last budget year that ended in June 2008.

Currently it has about two million account holders. It has a correspondent relationship with 50 renowned foreign banks, in addition to a Society for Worldwide Inter-bank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) service and bilateral arrangement with 500 banks.

(ST)