80% of CBE’s Transactions Are Now Digital

Ethiopia’s state-owned Commercial Bank of Ethiopia CBE) has made strides in digital banking services, with digital channels handling 80% of its transactions during the first quarter. CBE facilitated around 402 million transactions across multiple access channels, contributing more than 50% of the total digital banking services within the financial industry.

The Bank’s quarterly publication indicates a formidable customer base with its mobile money service CBE Birr reaching 30 million customers, nearly 10 million users on its mobile banking service, and around 21 million debit card users. However, the report did not disclose the total transaction value for the period.

Ethiopia’s biggest bank has also continued to ensure the integrity of its digital banking infrastructure by subscribing to international certifications.

CBE’s digital banking infrastructure came into the spotlight in March after a system glitch led to the unauthorized withdrawal of 801 million birr over a single weekend. The Bank managed to recover most of the amount in the following months with a national crackdown on the opportunistic beneficiaries.

However, the Bank which accounts for nearly 60% of all banking operations in the country, has much more to contend with than just its digital services.

Despite CBE’s digital banking services showing an 8% growth from the figures throughout the last financial year, it has needed a nearly 846-billion-birr bond issuance to settle years of non-performing loans (NPL).

Ethiopia’s parliament ratified a bill for the issuance of 900-billion-birr bonds to settle the NPLs and for the recapitalization of the Bank three weeks ago. One of the key targets in Ethiopia’s IMF program includes significantly improving the financial and operational standing of CBE as part of broad state-owned enterprise reforms.