BY BILAL DERSO
ADDIS ABABA – Buna International Bank (BIB), one of the emerging private banks in Ethiopia, announced that it has registered over 582 million Birr profit before tax in the 2019/20 fiscal year.
Presenting the 2019/20 annual report on Sunday, Chairperson of the bank’s Board of Directors Sewale Abate (Ph.D) said that the bank has made commendable activities to maintain profitability by overcoming challenges COVID-19 have posed in the banking industry and in the national economy at large.
According to Sewale, BIB’s paid-up capital has shown a 503.80 million Birr increase from last year and reached 3.07 billion Birr in June 30,2020. The bank’s total deposit has also registered a 3.29 billion Birr increment and has reached to 13.88 billion Birr in the reported period.
By the same token, the amount of money the bank has disbursed for various business and investment projects in 2019/20 fiscal year is surpassed that of the past year same period by 40 percent and has reached to 3.29 billion Birr.
Whilst the import-export sector has the lion’s share in obtaining the finance, construction and inland trade and service sectors take the second and third positions respectively.
Sewale stated that BIB has been hugely investing to enhance accessibility and opened 37 new branches during the last fiscal year. In the reported period, the Bank has 242 branches spread all over the country. Equal consideration has also been given to enhance the mobile and electronic banking services.
Similarly, BIB witnessed huge success to access new customers and 268,070 customers opened saving accounts. In the reported period, the BIB’s customer base has reached to 809,493.
According to the chairperson, due attention has given to strengthen the interest-free banking (IFB) scheme and the bank has been offering the service in 200 dedicated windows. Furthermore, BIB has one IFB full-fledged branch.
The customer base and total deposit in the IFB wing reached 14,233 and 223.9 million Birr respectively in the reported period.
In the line of discharging corporate social responsibility, BIB has donated 19 million Birr for development and humanitarian programs that aimed to build the country and change the livelihoods of low-income communities, Sewale remarked.
The Ethiopian herald December 22/2020
