Ahmed Abetew, who succeeded Mekonen Manyazewal as Minister of Industry four weeks ago, will now also take the latter's place as chairman of the board of directors at the Development Bank of Ethiopia (DBE).

Mekonen's stint as chairman of the seven-member board of directors was extremely short-lived. His replacement came only three weeks after his initial appointment. Mekonnen is also chair of the board at the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE).

DBE officials received notice of Ahmed's appointment on July 16, 2013, via the Public Financial Institutions Supervising Agency, which is in charge of overseeing state-owned banks. This marks the third time the chairperson of the DBE's board has been changed in the past three months.

The seat first became vacant in mid-May 2013, after Melaku Fenta, former director general of the Ethiopian Revenues & Customs Authority (ERCA), was taken into police custody on alleged corruption charges. He had held the board chairperson's seat at the DBE for the past six years.

Melaku was immediately replaced by Abdul Aziz Mohammed, vice president of the Oromia Regional State.

Soon after, in July, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn made several reshuffles to his cabinet. One of these was to move Mekonen Manyazewal from the MoI to head the National Planning Commission - a new federal Agency that will oversee the government's Growth & Transformation Plan (GTP). It was along with his new post that Mekonen was also appointed as board chairman of the DBE.

But, his replacement came rather abruptly for reasons that remain undisclosed by officials. There is speculation, however, that it may be because of a conflict of interests. This was mentioned by two senior officials at the DBE whom Fortune talked to.

This conflict comes as a result of Mekonen serving as board chairman of the NBE. The NBE is in charge of regulating and supervising all banks in Ethiopia, including the DBE.

A similar speculation was present in 2007, when former TPLF leader, Abay Tsehaye, was removed from the DBE's board chairmanship eight months after his appointment. He had at the same time been chairman of the board of the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE). A conflict of interests was the speculation then, as it is now.

Mekonnen's time as the DBE's chair was the shortest in the bank's history. The change in appointment came from the Prime Minister's Office, according to sources at the DBE.

Previously, Ahmed was deputy administrator of the Amhara Regional State and headed the region's Industry & Urban Development Bureau. Since 1992, he has headed several bureaus within the Amhara region, including trade, industry development and urban development bureaus, as well as the Finance & Economic Development Bureau.

The board of directors includes Ahmed Hamza, from the Information Network & Security Agency (INSA); Wassihun Abate, legal department head at the Ministry of Finance & Economic Development (MoFED); Abdulaziz Mohammed; Sileshi Lemma, director general of the Textile Industry Development Institute; Haileselassie Tekie, general manager of the Horticulture & Floriculture Development Agency and Ayana Zewde.

The DBE's board is tasked with steering the bank's policy of providing long and medium term loans to priority sectors. The DBE, which was established in 1909, during Menilik's reign as Society for the Promotion of Agriculture and Trade, only got a board to head it during the mid-1990s. It was at this time that it was named the Development Bank of Ethiopia and was recapitalised with 250 million Br. Another restructuring came in 2003, with a focus on development goals. At this stage, the Bank was recapitalised with 1.8 billion Br. This marked the eighth time the Bank had been restructured, and the seventh time it was renamed, during its century-old existence.

Currently DBE is implementing a five year plan, until 2014/15, to go hand in hand with the GTP. By the end of the year it plans to disburse 21.9 billion Br to the manufacturing sector and 16 billion Br to the agricultural sector. From these disbursements, 16.77 billion Br and 15.5 billion Br, to be earmarked for manufacturing and agriculture respectively, is to be given to the private sector.