Commercial Bank of Ethiopia Unveils Digital Loans up to 150,000 Birr

The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) has launched a new digital loan service through its CBE Birr mobile application, enabling customers to access loans ranging from 500 to 150,000 birr without any collateral. 

During the launch ceremony held today at CBE’s headquarters, Acting CEO Ephrem Mekuria said the new digital credit service was initially designed primarily to provide financial solutions prioritizing civil servants. He noted that CBE employees have already been using the digital credit service over the past year.

To access the new service dubbed CBE Beje, a short and transparent registration process is carried out between CBE and the borrower’s employing organization. Customers only need to hold a CBE Birr account. Once registered, they can apply for loans starting from 500 birr up to 150,000 birr.

Borrowers’ salaries must be paid directly through CBE to enable the bank to conduct credit scoring, eliminating the need for additional collateral. So far, CBE has signed formal agreements with 478 institutions to offer the digital credit service, with 83 organizations already processing loans. In just the past two months, loans totaling 1.6 billion birr have been disbursed through the platform.

Although CBE Birr was launched nearly eight years ago, the bank had previously provided digital credit primarily through partnerships with Ethio Telecom’s mobile money service, Telebirr. In recent months, Telebirr has intensified efforts to recover outstanding loan payments, including warnings of possible legal action against delinquent borrowers.