Commercial Bank of Ethiopia and Attijariwafa bank have signed by November 18th, 2016 in Addis Ababa a Memorandum of Understanding of an economically and mutually interesting relationship to allow them to explore possibilities of cooperation in the fields of Trade Finance and Project Finance, with a target to enhance trade and investment between Morocco and Ethiopia.
This Cooperation Agreement has been signed in the framework of the non-bilateral program of business cooperation agreements between operators of the two brother countries.
Mr. Bekalu Zeleke, President & CEO of Commercial Bank of Ethiopia and Mr. Mohamed El Kettani, Chairman & CEO of Attijariwafa bank, have declared their mutual honor and satisfaction for this important Cooperation Agreement concluded between the most important bank in Ethiopia and the first financial group in Morocco: “This agreement will be the first step for a long term partnership between our two institutions and a real business facilitation platform for Ethiopian, Moroccan and African companies which intent to develop trade and investment in the two countries.”
This Memorandum constitutes the first agreement ever to be signed between an Ethiopian Financial Institution and a Moroccan one.
About Commercial Bank of Ethiopia:
Established in 1942, Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) is a state-owned financial institution with a predominant market share of more than 65% in the Ethiopian banking system (and almost 80% of the trade balance). As the first and the most important bank in Ethiopia, CBE has a network of more than 1,140 branches, about 13.3 million account holders, and more than 22,900 employees. CBE generates a NBI of circa 23(1) billion ETB(2) (10.5 billion MAD), owns total assets of circa 305(1) billion ETB (129 billion MAD) and distributes customers’ loans of circa 108(1) billion ETB (50 billion MAD). In term of trade finance, CBE has SWIFT bilateral arrangements with more than 700 banks across the world and a strong correspondent relationship network with more than 50 renowned foreign banks (Commerzbank, Deutsch Bank, Citibank, JP Morgan, Bank of America, Royal Bank of Canada,…).
About Attijariwafa bank Group:
Attijariwafa bank is a leading banking and financial Group in Africa founded in 1904. Attijariwafa bank is a universal bank operating in a wide range of activities, including retail banking, private banking, corporate & investment banking, specialized financial services, asset management, insurance and international retail banking.
Attijariwafa bank is present in 25 countries with 3,844 branches and 17,367 employees servicing 8.1 million customers. The Group reported total assets of USD 42.6 billion and shareholders’ equity of USD 4.2 billion as of 30th of June 2016. It recorded in 2015 net banking income of USD 1.9 billion and net income of USD 535 million.
Attijariwafa bank is listed on the Casablanca Stock Exchange with a market capitalization of USD 7.4 billion as of 30th of September 2016.
(1) Financial figures as of June 30th, 2015
(2) ETB: Ethiopian Birr / 1 MAD = 2,2 ETB (as of 18/11/2016)
