Bank to Resume Services in 20 more Branches in Tigray Region: CBE President
The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) disclosed that 20 additional branches located in government-controlled areas of Tigray region will resume providing banking services within a few days.
Following the peace agreement several institutions have been providing services in government-controlled areas of Tigray region including electric supply, health and banking services as well as schools.
Commercial Bank of Ethiopia President, Abe Sano said that CBE has been working to resume banking services in towns that are under the control of the federal government.
The bank, which was able to get access to 30 branches, has resumed banking services in 10 branches and will do the same in 20 more branches in the coming days.
According to him, the bank is in contact with the Mekele district for completing audit work and check the transaction system so that customers will be allowed to withdraw money from their deposits.
The president noted that the reopened branches are providing limited services, particularly allowing customers to deposit, receive money sent from abroad and across the country.
Accordingly, the number of customers has been increasing in the branches that started service, he said.
Electricity, telephone and internet infrastructures as well as system connection and audit are necessary to connect the branches to the main office and restart service in all branches, he said.
Efforts are also underway to assign branch staffs of the banks located in some areas which are under the control of the federal government, the president said.
He explained that the branches have been providing limited services because the branches at Mekele were providing cash withdrawal service to customers for over a year manually without access to customers deposit information on the system. This means customers’ deposit balance is more than its actual balance since the manually paid amounts are not yet posted to the system.
It is our District Management who knows what they have been doing during those over a year disconnection period and we have to first get their report before commencing the critical services such as cash withdrawal and credit related services, the president added.
All the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia branches in the Tigray region would resume providing the banking services after a system connection is made between the bank’s Head Office and the Mekele district, Abe explained.
The resumption of banking services by the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia and others is part of the government activities being carried out in the region to restore basic services and humanitarian aid after the peace agreement.
Different institutions are providing various services to the people in Tigray, including electricity, telecom, health and education services as well as humanitarian assistance and rebuilding efforts following the peace agreement reached between the government and the TPLF.
Source: Ethiopia News Agency