Last month, Equity bank announced that it was planning to enter the Ethiopian market. The lender, which operates in other East African nations including Central Africa’s DRC revealed the plan to take its business in Ethiopia during the staging of its FY announcement for Q1 2019.
This development has come to fruition as the financial institution has opened a Commercial Representative Office in Addis Ababa as it preps for commercial operations in July, 2019.
The Ethiopia station will be headed by Hassan Maalim who holds a Bachelor of Arts degree and an MBA in Finance.
“Having completed Phase One of our expansion, the entry into Ethiopia is part of our Phase Two expansion in pursuit of our aspiration of being a Pan African Bank with presence in 10 African countries by the end of the year. This will enable the Bank to continue to scale up and unlock economies of scale especially in this era of digitization and virtualization of banking,” says Equity Bank CEO and MD James Mwangi.
Ethiopia, whose population surpasses the 100 million mark, appointed a privatization commission that is pursuing channels to make the private sector better.
Preceding Ethiopia were entries in Zambia and Mozambique after the lender struck a preliminary agreement with Atlas Mara Limited to exchange ordinary shares in the bank for controlling equity stakes in four institutions operating in Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia and Mozambique.
