ADDIS ABABA – The recently-launched ‘CBE NOOR’ brand name, which renames the interest-free banking (IFB) service, has been playing a significant role in enhancing customers’ confidence thereby boosting deposit, customer base and the amount of loan disbursed to halal businesses, the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) said.
CBE’s NOOR Vice President Nuri Hussein told The Ethiopian Herald that the new brand, which literally translated as ‘CBE Light’ in Arabic, was introduced in last June in a view to making the Bank closer to its customers and boosting the latter’s trust in the service. The brand introduction is also aimed at keeping and enhancing the leading role of the CBE has been enjoyed in financing the nation’s overall business and investment projects.
The VP stated that the introduction of the new brand has also been brought about a significant outcome in ensuring the customer’s sense of ownership in the service and encouraging them to save more, which has been showcased by the bank’s success to mobilize additional 2.2 billion Birr in just thirty days of the previous month. Accordingly, the total deposit mobilized in CBE NOOR until June 30,2020 have reached 32.5 billion Birr.
By the same token, significant success has been registered in widening customer base and 60,000 new customers have become part of the CBE NOOR last month. Rendering the service both at dedicated branches and window models, currently the Bank has recruited more than to 2.8 million CBE NOOR customers.
“As the role of the bank is to collect fund from excess and allocate at deficit, the same is true in CBE NOOR and we implement the same process within Sharia rulings,” Nuri said, adding that the widening of customer base and the subsequent boosting of deposit level enables the bank to avail more finance to customers. “So far, CBE NOOR has been disbursing 3.3 billion Birr financing for halal businesses in the just concluded Ethiopian fiscal year and it would consolidate its engagement in supporting projects that have been running in accordance with Sharia law.”
CBE has been widely engaged in offering the Murabaha type of Sharia’s mode of financing through which the Bank sales a specified asset at a mutually agreed profit rate added on the purchase cost to be repaid according to a predefined repayment schedule in equal installments or in lump sum. The price of goods and bank’s profit on Murabaha transaction should be fixed and known to both parties at the time of contract.
Regarding accessibility, the VP indicated that currently CBE’s 1,592 branches have been providing CBE NOOR service at window level whilst the Bank has been operating 56 CBE NOOR dedicated branches across the country. The bank has been hugely investing in branch network expansion and product diversification in a view to ensuring customer satisfaction and sharia compliance as well as keeping the business growth.
Equal consideration has also been given to re-brand CBE NOOR ATM cards, debit cards as well as internet and mobile banking services to ensure the strategic theme of gradual conversion to digitalization to CBE’s business growth and customer satisfaction, Nuri elaborated.
The Ethiopian Herald July 21/2020
BY BILAL DERSO
