The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia over the weekend announced a record $25.6 million (25.6 billion Birr) annual profit before tax during the past Ethiopian fiscal year that ended on July 7, 2024.
President of the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) Abie Sano attributed the record-high profit to cost saving and reform strategies implemented during the fiscal year.
The bank also put its annual revenue at 135.4 billion Birr ($2.1 billion), showing a 13 percent increase from the preceding year.
These strategies helped the bank bring its nonperforming loans down to 2.3 percent at the end of the budget year, according to CBE.
At the same period, the bank disbursed fresh loans and advances worth $3.78 billion of which 91 percent or 198 billion birr were given to the private sector.
Per report, the bank’s total deposits also increased to 1.17 trillion birr in the year that saw the number of CBE customers surpassed the 45 million mark.
These customers made 1.56 billion transactions worth 31.6 trillion birr in the 12-month period. The 1.9 billion or 72 percent of the total transactions were made through CBE’s digital payment services.
The state-owned bank also faced many challenges including a system glitch that let customers to transact more than their total balance.
MG/as/APA