Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – April 3, 2025 — The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE), the nation’s largest state-owned bank, has reported a staggering 32.6 billion birr profit in just the past eight months, marking a 170.5% surge compared to the same period last year, according to the bank’s president, Abe Sano.
The announcement came during the presentation of CBE’s eight-month performance report to the House of Representatives’ Standing Committee on Government Enterprises Affairs.
“This exceptional profit growth reflects our strong performance in revenue expansion and effective cost control,” said Abe. “We’ve seen encouraging results across all income-generating segments of the bank.”
CBE’s total income for the period reached 109.32 billion birr, representing a 26% increase year-on-year. The strong financials are being attributed not only to higher revenues but also to improved credit quality. Abe noted that the bank’s non-performing loan (NPL) ratio has declined, and provisions for bad loans have significantly decreased—further boosting the bottom line.
Analysts say the record-setting performance underlines the continued dominance of CBE in Ethiopia’s financial sector, where it holds the lion’s share of the banking market. The bank has been pushing digital transformation and broadening its customer base in recent years while navigating an increasingly competitive and reforming financial environment.
While Ethiopia’s banking sector remains largely closed to foreign competition, upcoming liberalization plans may test the strength of domestic incumbents like CBE. Still, with this level of profitability and improved asset quality, the bank appears to be positioning itself as a formidable player ahead of potential sectoral shifts.
CBE’s full-year forecast remains undisclosed, but with such a performance in the first eight months, expectations for a record-breaking fiscal year are rising.
