Ethiopia: Reform Supports Dbe to Achieve Remarkable Success

Reforms conducted in the past five years have enabled Development Bank of Ethiopia (DBE) reduce bad credit and increase total capital to 39.7 billion Birr.

Presenting the nine month work performance and the five year implementation plan of the bank to the Public Development Enterprises Affairs standing committee of the parliament, DBE's CEO Yohannes Ayalew (PhD) said yesterday that the bank has been conducting various reforms, particularly in the past five years, to improve the service provision and maximize customers' satisfaction.

He mentioned that the total capital of the bank was reduced from 7.5 billion Birr to two billion Birr before the reform and the accumulation of bad credit was reached 57.1%.

However, he said, the total capital of the bank has now reached 39.7 billion Birr and the bad credit is also reduced to 7.8 % at present, which is attributed to the government's injection of 21.8 billion Birr along with the bank's endeavor.

The bank has secured 4 billion Birr profit in the past nine months thereby it has planned to reduce the bad credit to 2 % in the future, he expressed.

According to him, funds from development partners, Ministry of Finance and bond sale are the alternative financial sources of the bank.

He further stated that the bank has been providing capacity building training apart from finance loan provision to maximize the mutual benefit of the people and itself.

Though the bank strives to address various challenges, lack of adequate foreign currency, infrastructure limitation, skilled human power gap, sporadic conflict, and the likes are serious problems hindering DBE to register better performance, he disclosed.

Yohannes noted that the bank succeeded 91.7% of its plan in terms of returning loan in the past nine months of this fiscal year.

Similarly, the bank in cooperation with the World Bank, has provided training for 123,278 small and middle level enterprises' trainees, he mentioned.

"Depending on the field, the bank provides loan with low interest (20 Years) 7%, 13%, and 11.5% loan to agriculture, industry, and middle level enterprises," he stated.

Moreover, the bank has drawn important lesson from Brazil, South Korea, China, and Singapore in order to modernize its service supported by technology, he added.

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