BY TSEGAYE TILAHUN
ADDIS ABABA – The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) Noor said the performance of its non-interest service has been thriving from time to time in terms of customer base and resources mobilization, the Vice President said.
In an exclusive interview with The Ethiopian Herald, CBE Interest-Free Banking Vice President Nuri Hussein stated that Ethiopia’s biggest bank is deepening the establishment of full-fledged Interest Free Banking (IFB) branches. The branch establishments have been playing instrumental role in increasing customer base to six million in mid 2023.
The Vice President stated that the bank has been hugely engaged in the establishments of IFB dedicated branches in a view to satisfying customer’s requests and ensuring service quality. The branch expansion is also aimed at attracting
new and unbanked customers, safeguarding Sharia Compliance requirements and running the IFB business independently.
As a result of this aggressive involvement, the bank has managed to mobilize 20 billion Birr in deposits over the last eleven months of the current fiscal year. CBE has also been hugely engaged in financing halal businesses and has so far disbursed close to 20 billion Birr to IFB customers. More finance is in the pipeline to support business and investment projects.
“Currently, CBE Noor has147 full- fledged IFB dedicated branches throughout the country and the service is being delivered in our 1915 branches at the window level.
Apart from physical expansion, the bank has been offering technology-equipped services such as card banking and mobile banking in the IFB sector. CBE Noor is providing service for its growing customers via conventional and full-fledged interest free banks and in remote areas, the service has been providing through agent and digital banking schemes, Nuri added.
To ease the skilled labor challenge in the sector, the bank designed curriculum and has been offering continuous trainings and other capacity building programs for its employees so that the latter to provide quality service. By doing this, the CBE is contributing a lot to ease the skilled labor force gap in Ethiopia’s financial sector, the VP remarked.
Ethiopia adopted the IFB banking at window scheme in 2011 and permitted the full-fledged service by the end of 2019, it was learnt.
Cognizant of the high demand for IFB service, the government has been supporting the sector by establishing a financial inclusion council and undertaking various reforms.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SATURDAY 24 JUNE 2023
