Amhara Bank inauguration was trending among Ethiopian social media users
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Amhara Bank was inaugurated on Saturday in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa and different parts of the country.
The latest private bank in the financial industry, Amhara Bank is said to differ from the rest of the private banks.
One of the things that sets it apart from the rest of the private banks, based on a report from Ambara Media Corporation, is that it is established with the largest number of shareholders in the history of private banks in the country.
It has over 165,000 shareholders. There are also 44,000 more shareholders that are in the process of fulfilling the required legal documents and signatures, as per the report from AMC.
Over half of the share was sold in Addis Ababa. Over 30 percent of the shares are sold in other parts of Ethiopia outside of the Amhara region. It is only 20 percent of the share that is sold in the Amhara region, according to the report from AMC.
It is the National Bank of Ethiopia that issues licences to private Banks.
Amhara Bank has over 6.516 billion birrs starting capital that is already signed and 4.83 billion birr that are paid. That makes it, according to the source, one of the largest private banks in the country.
It opened 72 branches across the country on the same day that it was inaugurated. Some cities in the Amhara region of Ethiopia have multiple branches of Amhara Bank. And it aspires to make the number of branches to 100 by the end of June in the Ethiopian calendar.
Headquartered in the Legahar area in the capital Addis Ababa, the bank seeks to be accessible to over 70 percent of people in the countryside that is said to have limited access to banking services.
The new bank says it has got the technological infrastructure to make that commitment a reality.
On its inauguration day, it paid for Anbessa Bus rider’s fare between the hours of 6 a.m. and 9. p.m. in the capital Addis Ababa.
Yinger Dessie, governor of the National Bank of Ethiopia, was among the dignitaries who attended the inauguration ceremony in the capital Addis Ababa.
“Those who made it to organise the bank and the bank’s Management deserve appreciation. Especially the Board Chairman, Melaku Fanta, has achieved great work in terms of fulfilling the requirements needed to establish the Bank,” Yinager Dessie said. If a single requirement was missing, it would not have happened, he added.
Yinager Dessie also commended the contributions of Ethiopians in the Diaspora to make the establishment of Amhara Bank a reality.
Among the missions it seeks to achieve, according to the Board Chairman, is accessibility to the sections of the population that are not given attention by the finance industry, and to support those who are lacking access to finance in order to improve the economic activity they are engaged in.
Melaku Fanta said the grand principle of the bank is healthy competition over rivalry and mutual growth rather than growing at the expense of others.
He also expressed conviction that it will contribute a key role in the development of the country.
Private Banks in Ethiopia are less than 35 years old.
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