Central Bank Approves Lion Bank’s New President in a Week
Bank’s Profit nearly doubled in three years to 127 million Birr as deposit mobilisation reaches 2.7 billion Birr.
By Fasika Tadese, Addis Fortune
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – The central bank has approved Lion International Bank’s (LIB) choice of president, Getachew Solomon, a week after the request submitted to it.
The Lion’s Board of Directors, chaired by Berhanu Gebremedhin, requested the central bank for the approval of its acting president to take the post permanently on October 14, 2014 and get the approval a week later on October 22, 2014, which is said to be the fastest approval the central bank ever gave. Getachew, who was operations vice president, took over the acting president post on September 1, 2014 after Negusu Gebregziabher resigned on August 28, 2014, after four years with the Bank. .
Approving Getachew’s appointment took short because the Bank had presented relevant documents in time, according to Alemayehu Kebede, change management & communications director at the NBE.
“The nominee was also working as a vice president of the Bank so it was easy to know his background,” he added.
Getachew has a BA Degree in accounting from Mekelle University (MU) and obtained his Masters of Business Administration from Greenwich University, England, by specialising in International Business. He has worked in the banking industry for the last 19 years by starting his career with the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE), rising through the ranks of bank clerk, corporate communication, branch manager and district manager. He has been working as operations vice president for the LIB for the last one year.
Lion was established in October 2006 by 6,392 shareholders with 200 million Br in paid-up and 432 million Br authorised capital, which are now up to 446.8 million Br and 627.8 million Br , respectively. Currently, the Bank has 67 branches, with 870 permanent and 580 temporary employees.
LIB is now the second bank to get its presidential nominee to be accepted by the NBE following Debub Global Bank (DBG), whose new president, Addissu Haba, resigned from Bank of Abyssinia (BoA) to join it. Abyssinia and Berhan International Bank (BIB) are currently managed by acting presidents after their presidents resigned in September.
The Bank’s profit has been growing over the past three years, increasing from a profit after tax of 75.4 million Br, to 111.3 million Br and 127 million Br during the last fiscal year 2013/14. Lion has a deposit of 2.7 billion Br from its 134,500 account holders, and provided a loan of 1.56 billion Br during the last fiscal year.
Getachew becomes the fourth president of Lion following Negussu, who took the presidency in May 2010, following the resignation of Meressa Gebremariam, the Bank’s second president. The first president was Tsegaye Tetemke, who stayed on the job for two years starting from the establishment of the Bank.
“We will assign a new operation vice president soon,” said Getachew.
Source: AddisFortune.com
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