As Ethiopia’s financial sector continues to open up, Awash Bank is pursuing a five-year strategic plan to transform and accelerate its business. Its key goals are to maintain its domestic leadership plus expand beyond the country’s borders.
Innovation and leadership are core to Awash Bank’s success, both in its legacy as well as its future.
It is already a pioneering privately-owned bank in Ethiopia’s financial landscape. Among its 29 peers in the domestic market, Awash Bank dominates in terms of asset size, profitability, capital base, deposits, and loans and advances. The next step, for most of the rest of this decade, is a roadmap to transform the bank to reach greater heights.
“Our vision is to solidify our leading position in the Ethiopian banking sector and remain a competitive bank, both in the domestic and global arenas,” said Abebe Deressa, senior chief, corporate strategy officer.
This will take agility against the backdrop of a volatile, uncertain and complex world, along with a desire to innovate, be digitally creative and stay committed to socially responsible growth.
Building a better bank
Awash Bank has a clear incentive to achieve its goals, and quickly. The liberalisation of Ethiopia’s economy is expected to foster a highly competitive environment for incumbent banks, new entrant foreign banks and non-banking financial service providers.
In response, Deressa is focused on developing and launching innovative products and services that are customised and tailored to the needs of different customer segments.
“Awash Bank is making considerable investments in technology, forging collaborations with different fintech companies and other market operators, and investing in improving human resource capabilities, including IT and research capabilities.”
Abebe Deressa, Senior Chief, Corporate Strategy Officer
The upshot is a new digital channel platform, created to accommodate rapid deployment and micro-service integration capabilities. “This will enable us to create an integrated, seamless user journey with omni channel capabilities across branches, the web portal and mobile banking,” added Deressa.
Giving more to society
Being accessible to the wider population is in Awash Bank’s DNA.
“We also play a role in promoting socially responsible growth and supporting the communities we serve,” said Deressa.
A case in point is the “Tatariwochu initiative”. This encourages start-ups and newly established micro and small enterprises to gain training on business development skills and access to financing. The importance of this shouldn’t be overstated, given these are key constraints to businesses and employment flourishing in the potentially resource-rich Ethiopian landscape.
A growth mindset
The digital and social successes add to Awash Bank’s already wide range of financial services – from acceptance of deposits and provision of credit, to financing international trade and facilitating the payment system. It is an offering that reaches over 12 million customers across nearly 950 branch networks, mobile and internet banking services, and widespread ATM terminals and point-of-sale machines.
Yet there’s no holding back the management or Awash Bank in general. “Our compelling vision and values enable us to react to complexity and ambiguity with clarity and agility.”
Ultimately, its management, staff and all stakeholders are working hard to make the bank a major financial player, not only in the Ethiopian economy, but also on the regional and global stages.
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