DBE takes over Etur Textile

The Development Bank of Ethiopia (DBE) has taken over the management of the Turkish-owned Etur Textile Limited, which has been unable to repay its loan which is over one billion birr. According to the Development Bank of Ethiopia, it has taken over the management of the textile factory in Adama, which is registered as a loan company due to its inability to repay the loan. The Development Bank has also appointed former managers of the textile factory as the company’s general manager, finance manager, marketing and other officials for management positions.
Etur Textile, founded in Turkey in the 1950s and a world-renowned supplier of textile products, entered Ethiopia in 2002. At the time, it was one of the Turkish-textile factories that borrowed billions of birr from the Development Bank of Ethiopia.
The factory, which was set up in Adama, mainly produces elbows and has been providing inputs to various local companies that use elbows.
However, like other Turkish companies, it has not been able to repay its loan on time. For the past six years, the factory has not been able to repay the loan of the Development Bank, and it has been on record of bad loans.
The bank has repeatedly written letters to the company to repay the loan, but the textile company failed to do so.
According to sources, the factory loan will exceed 1.2 billion birr with interest. Although the Development Bank had repeatedly sought to sell the factory and return the money, the company did not comply with the auction due to the fact that the factory and the machines it imported were too small for the high cost of the loan.
Two Turkish companies, Alsi Addis and Aika Addis, have failed to repay billions of birr in loans from the Development Bank of Ethiopia. It is well known that loans to Turkish companies, in particular, have been criticized for exaggerating the loans made by the factory and the imported machine.