Commercial bank of Ethiopia (CBE) records 58.7 billion birr revenue in the first half of 2022/23 fiscal year, a one percent point higher from a similar period last year.
During a press conference held on Thursday February 2, 2022, Abe Sano, CEO of the bank, explained that in the 2nd quarter of 2022/23, the bank earned 58.7billion birr from various source and recorded a profit of birr 13 billion birr before tax showing marginal growth from last year similar period where the revenue recorded was 58.1 billion birr.
It is said that in the first half of the year, CBE has collect 88.7 billion birr in deposit from various deposit accounts. The total deposit account of the bank has now reached 978.8 billion birr and is now on the verge to surpass a trillion birr in the coming couple of weeks. This is a huge growth, underlined the bank, being that the figures were 890.1billion birr at the end of the fiscal year on June 2022.
In the second quarter, CBE managed to collect 55.8 billion birr from the loan that was provided by the bank for development projects in the private sector and the government.
In the second quarter of 2022/23, the bank raised 1.7 billion dollar and was able to achieve the quarterly plan by 111 percent. Also as indicated, the bank has provided 3.9 billion dollars for income trading and other business activities that require foreign currency.
During the quarter, the bank provided a total of 66.3 billion birr for investment projects and activity conducted by the private sector and the government, and it is indicated that the total amount of loan given by the bank has reached to a staggering 975.7 billion birr.
At the end of the 2nd quarter, the total assets of the bank have reached 1.2 trillion birr while the capital increased to 60 billion birr.

The bank has also indicated in the last 6 months that more than 365million transactions worth of 1.3 trillion birr have transpired which is 233 percent greater than last year’s similar period’s performance. This has been realized through its digital banking gateway which is about 39 percent of transactions that was made in the bank which has 6 million customers on the platform. This is a huge step up from last year’s performance which had 179 million transaction worth of 386 billion birr.
The bank has also rolled out a new financial service focusing on members of the Ethiopian diaspora. It launched the EthioDirect application for a money transfer service to Ethiopia.
In this platform, users can send anywhere between $5 and $1000 directly using CBE’s money transfer application. The bank said as things stand now, the service is available to residents in nine countries.
The service is available to those who would like to send money to Ethiopia from Canada, Israel, United States of America, Italy, South Africa, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia. Currently, the EthioDirect app is available for download on the App Store and Play Store.
It is said that CBE partnered with Eagle-Lion System Technology Private Company in developing the money transfer applications.
Abe Sano was cited saying that the banking sector in the country is being modernized with technology to hasten development to prevent illicit forex services in the country. Cognizant of this, he explained that the application offers a reliable and efficient money transfer service to Ethiopia. The service is made available for free, according to the CBE presidents.
With over 1800 branches across Ethiopia, CBE claims to have over 34 million customers.

UN World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) 2023 report, projects Ethiopia’s inflation rate to fair on at 24.9 percent in 2023, signaling a decrease from 34.5 percent in 2022 which at the time was catalyzed by war and crises.
The report indicates that Central banks including Ethiopia, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Sudan and Zimbabwe face the most pressing needs for monetary policy tightening.
“The sociopolitical and security conditions in several countries remain challenging for the continent, particularly in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Ethiopia, Mali and Mozambique,” stated the release.
To combat inflation and exchange rate pressure, about two thirds of African countries increased domestic policy interest rates in 2022. The report reveals that most countries will likely further increase rates in 2023 in parallel with the projected monetary stance of the Federal Reserve in the United States and the European Central Bank.
In line with the global pickup in inflation, price levels have risen significantly in African countries but are projected to moderate in 2023. The share of African countries experiencing double-digit inflation rocketed to 40 per cent in 2022, driven mainly by supply chain disruptions and the fallout from the war in Ukraine, which made essential food and energy items more expensive.
The war in Ukraine has further weakened the growth prospects of African economies since it came at a time when countries were reeling from the adverse impacts of the COVID 19 pandemic, climate shocks and heightened security risks in some countries. Global commodity price shocks have reverberated through African economies, especially through rising energy, fertilizer and food prices. These have translated into increasing import bills for most net food and oil importers and shrinking GDP. The crisis has further highlighted vulnerabilities due to supply constraints, weak infrastructure, economic dependence on external partners and volatile global markets, all of which leave the poor more at risk of extreme poverty and food insecurity.
The persistence of the war is projected to push an additional 1.8 million people into extreme poverty in 2022 and 2.1 million in 2023 (AfDB, 2022). The Economic Commission for Africa estimates that the crisis could cut GDP growth by up to 0.7 percentage points in 2022 and drive poverty up by 0.5 percentage points. Many African countries have a high share of food weight in the consumer price index, averaging 41.9 (higher than in many advanced economies), which weighs heavily as indicated on the report.
Food items occupy the largest share in many household consumption baskets across Africa, with an expenditure share of about 42 per cent, compared to 13 per cent and 6 per cent for France and the United States, respectively. The expenditure share is much higher in fragile States, where food consumption can reach well over 60 per cent of total expenditure. Further, social protection coverage is limited in Africa as a whole. Only 17 per cent of people receive at least one social protection benefit compared with the global average of 47 per cent. This leaves 1.2 billion Africans without any social protection coverage (ILO, 2021), a situation expected to further exacerbate food insecurity.
Aggregate output in Africa is projected to remain subdued amid a volatile and uncertain global environment compounding domestic challenges. The continent has been hit by a confluence of shocks, comprising weaker demand from key trading partners, a sharp uptick in global inflation, higher borrowing costs and adverse weather events.
“These are undermining its full recovery from the pandemic. Real output losses compared to pre-pandemic projections continue to be large, with Africa remaining a full 2.4 percentage points below its pre-pandemic projected real output. This contrasts with developed economies, which have more than recuperated from their 2020 losses in terms of real output,” the report explains.
Aggregate economic growth is estimated to weaken to 3.8 per cent in 2023 from 4.1 per cent in 2022, due to subdued investment and deteriorating export volumes. In 2023, growth is expected to pick up in East Africa and West Africa while stabilizing in Central Africa.
As the report indicate commodity exporters in Africa will likely face weaker market conditions given the expected global economic slowdown. Export prices will probably remain high, however, amid fierce competition for the continent’s primary commodities.
As indicated several countries are still coping with the repercussions of the COVID 19 pandemic. With under a quarter (24.1 per cent) of people in Africa fully vaccinated against the virus, the continent remains vulnerable to renewed outbreaks and the possible arrival of new variants. Accordingly extreme poverty is projected to become increasingly concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa.
On the bright side, the economy is expected to grow by 4.8 percent in 2023, compared to the growth of 3.0 percent in 2022.

Agrilevante returns to the international exhibition calendar and celebrates its seventh edition from 5 to 8 October at the Bari exhibition centre. This week, the exhibition’s organising body, FederUnacoma surl, opened registration for exhibiting companies on the specially prepared on-line platform, thus starting the march towards the October event, one of the most important for the agricultural sector in the entire Mediterranean area. After the suspension of the 2021 edition due to the health emergency, the biennial Agrilevante – which has always been organised with the support of the Presidency and the Department of Agriculture of the Apulia Region and in collaboration with the Nuova Fiera del Levante – aims to confirm the results of the 2019 edition, when the number of exhibiting companies reached 360, representing 19 countries, and visitors from 65 countries exceeded 80 thousand. The international character is the strong point of this exhibition, which includes the active collaboration of the ICE Agency for the organisation of foreign delegations, and which offers technologies for all the main production chains of the Mediterranean and African regions: grains, olive oil, wine, fruit and vegetables, livestock, and non-food and energy raw materials. Operators from Southern Europe, the Balkans, the Middle East, North and Sub-Saharan Africa will find a vast selection of tractors, harvesting machines, equipment, irrigation and treatment systems, and advanced electronic devices for every type of processing and every model of agriculture in the Fiera del Levante pavilions. Along with the more than 8,000 models of machinery and equipment, significant interest will be aroused by the exhibition of prized breeds of cattle, horses, sheep, goats and poultry breeds. The presence of a section dedicated to technologies for Agriculture 4.0 will also draw interest, while in the coming weeks the programme of conventions, conferences, and workshops will be drawn up in collaboration with prestigious institutions such as the University of Bari and the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute, and with important organisations in the agricultural sector and the agro-mechanical supply chain.

Children are facing a growing risk of disease as cholera and measles outbreaks tighten their grip on Ethiopia, raising fears for the many vulnerable children already suffering from malnutrition, Save the Children said.
A cholera outbreak is affecting the Oromia and Somali regions, with at least 1,055 cases reported, including 28 deaths, since September 2022. In the past month alone, more than 316 cases have been reported in the two regions, a 30% jump from 739 cases at the end of December 2022, with one million people at risk of the disease in the two regions.
Spikes in measles cases have also been reported with 357 new measles cases and 6 deaths reported in the last week of January alone, according to health authorities.
A deadly combination of severe water shortages, poor hygiene and sanitation services, including open defecation and lack of water treatment options are driving the rapid spread of cholera, with severe drought exacerbating the situation.
As taps run dry, many families struggle to get clean water for use at home. Health authorities have pointed out that more than 80% of patients admitted for cholera were found to have consumed river water. In Ethiopia, more than 13 million people including 6.8 million children are in dire need of safe water. The situation is likely to get worse as the country enters the January-March dry season. Forecasts predict that rainfall in the upcoming rainy season in April will be below average.
Last month Save the Children said back-to-back droughts caused by five failed rainy seasons have left 12 million Ethiopians facing hunger as conflict and forced displacement exacerbate the hunger crisis in the country. This is also causing widespread malnutrition with 3.9 million children in Ethiopia severely malnourished– accounting for around half of people suffering from malnutrition across the whole of the Horn of Africa.
In the Somali and Oromia regions of Ethiopia, distraught mothers are arriving at Save the Children’s malnutrition stabilization centres with children showing severe symptoms and complications caused by malnutrition.
Hodan* lives with her husband and four children in the Somali region. Her husband is currently working as a farmhand back in their village after being edged out of his pastoralist lifestyle by the ongoing severe drought.
In the last four months, Hodan* told Save the Children, she has lost 3 goats and 3 camels leaving her family without a source of income and nutrition. This has left her struggling to feed her family including her 19-month-old daughter, Ayaan* who is suffering from the deadliest form of malnutrition. Ayaan* has been admitted to Stabilization Centre at Kelafo Health Centre, where she will receive life-saving therapeutic feeding treatment. Hodan says “I am not able to feed my children because of drought and we don’t have any money. We used to keep animals but we have lost all of them. My child has been sick for one month. When I saw the child is getting worse I decided to take her to the nearest health facility where I can get medication. That’s why I came here.”
By mid-January this year, Kelafo Health Centre had admitted 18 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition, 3 more children than it admitted the whole of January 2022 and pointing to a worsening situation in Ethiopia.
Save the Children’s Country Director for Ethiopia, Xavier Joubert, said “We know babies like Ayaan are particularly susceptible to cholera and measles during droughts because malnutrition lowers the body’s defences, making children more vulnerable to the diseases and their complications. In Ethiopia, more than two-thirds of cholera patients are children. We are concerned that most of those who have died from cholera are children under the age of 14, with 25% of them under five. We are calling for more funds to provide food, water and health services to affected communities.
“It’s clear that the current drought is contributing to these disease outbreaks and we are worried this is going to have severe consequences for children already battling malnutrition. We urgently need to ensure that every child has access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation.”
Save the Children has been operating in Ethiopia for over 60 years and was amongst the first respondents to the humanitarian crisis resulting from the conflict in the northern part of Ethiopia, while continuing humanitarian assistance to the prolonged humanitarian crises in Oromia and Somali regions. The organisation’s work is heavily anchored on health and nutrition as well as life-saving water and sanitation assistance, protection services, education support, and cash and in-kind distributions to the most vulnerable children and their families.
In 2022, Save the Children reached 7,574,882 people including 5,140,968 children through lifesaving food, water distribution, treatment for malnutrition among other services.