The Ethiopian Institute of Certified Public Accountants (ETICPA) has accredited 11 institutions as the country’s first authorized tuition providers for the Accounting Technician Qualification Ethiopia (ATQE), marking a significant step toward expanding Ethiopia’s pipeline of professionally trained accountants.
The accreditation, formalized through agreements signed on Monday, authorizes eight public universities, one private university and two private training providers to deliver ETICPA’s nationally standardized accounting technician programme. The initiative is the institute’s first accreditation exercise since its establishment under Proclamation No. 1372/2025.
The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) has removed its annual credit growth limit known as the credit cap and simultaneously raised its benchmark policy rate by one percentage point to 16 percent, in what Governor Eyob Tekalign described as a single, unified policy package rather than five separate decisions.
The measures were approved by the NBE Board following recommendations by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) at its 7th regular meeting held in Addis Ababa on July 13, 2026, and mark a significant shift in how Ethiopia’s central bank manages monetary policy moving from direct administrative controls on credit to an interest rate-based framework using indirect policy instruments.
Eyob said in his remarks following the board’s approval that the credit cap was introduced as a temporary transition instrument until the NBE fully moved to an interest rate-based monetary policy system.
“The National Bank of Ethiopia used the annual credit growth limit as a temporary measure until it fully transitioned to an interest rate-based monetary policy system that utilises indirect monetary policy instruments,” he said, adding that the central bank has now achieved that goal. He was emphatic that the removal of the cap does not signal a loosening of policy. “Lifting this credit growth limit is absolutely not a change in policy, but rather a change in instruments or operational methodology,” Eyob said.
To counter the potential inflationary impact of removing the credit cap which could allow banks to expand lending more freely the MPC recommended and the board approved a one percentage point increase in the policy rate, bringing it from 15 percent to 16 percent, while keeping the existing interest rate corridor of plus or minus three percentage points unchanged.
The MPC press release stated that the NBE will also implement a targeted reserve requirement, an additional reserve requirement applied to individual banks based on regular assessments of their loan-to-deposit ratio in cases where credit expansion poses a risk to the inflation outlook. The committee described the five measures together as a unified package aimed at maintaining a tight monetary policy stance through indirect instruments.
The remaining two measures in the package address the foreign exchange market. According to the MPC statement, the NBE’s foreign exchange commission rate has been reduced from 2.5 percent to 1.5 percent, a move the committee said is intended to reduce import-related costs, contain inflationary pass-through, and promote a more efficient foreign exchange market.
Additionally, the foreign exchange surrender requirement on goods exports has been reduced from 50 percent to 30 percent, a measure the committee said is aimed at enhancing export competitiveness, building market confidence, deepening the foreign exchange market, and improving price discovery.
The policy decisions come against a backdrop of renewed inflationary pressure. According to the MPC statement, headline inflation rose to 13.4 percent in May 2026, up from 11.7 percent in April and 9.7 percent in December 2025, driven by increases in both food inflation at 15.0 percent and non-food inflation at 11.1 percent. The committee attributed the rebound to fuel supply disruptions resulting from the Middle East conflict, which pushed up transportation costs.
The statement noted that Ethiopia had achieved single-digit inflation by December 2025 following the July 2024 macroeconomic reforms, a significant milestone after a prolonged period of elevated rates but that the oil price shock reversed that trend. The committee said inflation is projected to moderate by December 2026 but will likely remain in double digits over the six-month forecast horizon.
On the broader economy, the MPC statement indicated that real GDP grew by 9.2 percent in FY 2024/25, with the industrial sector contributing 3.7 percentage points, services 3.1 percentage points, and agriculture 2.3 percentage points. GDP growth is projected to reach 10.2 percent in FY 2025/26, according to the statement.
The external sector also showed marked improvement, with Ethiopia’s foreign exchange reserves increasing to 20 times their pre-reform levels and the current account deficit narrowing from $6.2 billion in 2023/24 to $1.8 billion in 2025/26, driven by a threefold increase in goods export earnings. The MPC said its next meeting will take place at the end of September 2026 or earlier if warranted.
Addis Ababa City Administration has reported that the city’s annual revenue has grown from 51 billion Birr in 2021/22 to 350 billion Birr in 2025/26, a nearly seven-fold increase over five years with the 2025/26 fiscal year alone recording a 50 per cent growth equivalent to 116.3 billion Birr compared to the previous year.
The figures were presented at the 4th Regular Summary Session of the Addis Ababa City Council, according to a statement posted on the city administration’s official communication office social media page. The city said the revenue performance placed Addis Ababa among the top six African cities, enabling it to share its experience with peer cities on the continent.
Ethiopian Airlines held an inaugural ceremony at the Skylight Hotel in Addis Ababa on Saturday evening to mark the launch of direct passenger services between Addis Ababa and Port Louis, Mauritius, with the first flight set to depart on July 12, 2026.
Mauritius becomes Ethiopian Airlines’ 41st country destination in Africa, with the airline operating a three-weekly service on the route, according to speeches delivered at the ceremony.
Speaking at the event, Mesfin Tasew, Chief Executive Officer of Ethiopian Airlines Group, said the new service will create seamless connectivity between Mauritius, mainland Africa, and destinations around the world through the airline’s global network of more than 125 destinations.
A new United Nations Development Programme assessment warns that the Ebola outbreak currently centered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is rapidly evolving into a continental economic crisis, with projections showing the virus and the trade restrictions imposed to contain it could cost African economies up to $3.6 billion, eliminate tens of thousands of jobs, and push nearly one million more people into poverty with Uganda, Rwanda, and South Sudan among the neighboring countries already absorbing significant socioeconomic shocks.
The assessment, titled Rapid Socioeconomic Assessment of Ebola Outbreak in the DRC and released on July 30, 2026, represents the most detailed quantification yet of the outbreak’s economic footprint beyond the immediate public health emergency, and carries direct implications for Ethiopia, which shares borders and active trade corridors with two of the named affected countries.
According to the UNDP report, even under a baseline scenario in which the virus is successfully contained within the DRC and Uganda, the economic damage remains severe. The DRC alone is projected to suffer real GDP losses exceeding $1 billion and the elimination of 55,000 jobs under containment conditions. If transmission widens and regional and global shocks intensify, continental GDP could contract by $2.37 billion from trade disruptions, border restrictions, transport delays, declining consumer confidence, and interruptions to informal markets alone before accounting for the direct costs of the health response.
The poorest 20 per cent of households across affected areas are projected to face a 1.76 per cent contraction in daily consumption, a loss the report describes as sufficient to erase fragile development gains accumulated over years.
The outbreak’s transmission mechanism into neighboring economies runs primarily through trade. The DRC shares active commercial borders with Uganda and South Sudan, both of which Ethiopia trades with through formal and informal cross-border channels.
The UNDP assessment is particularly pointed about the role of border restrictions in amplifying economic damage, noting that while containment measures such as quarantines are necessary, blanket border closures are inadvertently devastating local economies and informal livelihoods in ways that may outlast the outbreak itself. The report specifically flags informal cross-border trade, a sector dominated by women across the East and Central African region, as among the most exposed economic activities, with restrictions cutting off income streams for some of the most financially vulnerable traders operating along affected corridors.
The gendered dimension of the crisis receives significant attention in the UNDP assessment. Women dominate informal cross-border trade across the affected region, constitute the majority of frontline health workers, and simultaneously serve as primary caregivers at home, a combination of roles that places them at heightened risk of both direct virus exposure and economic displacement.
The report projects that disrupted healthcare services, as resources are diverted toward the Ebola response, could result in up to 2,520 excess infant deaths in the DRC from non-Ebola causes, a secondary public health crisis generated by the diversion of medical capacity rather than by the virus itself. The assessment describes the outbreak as functioning as a “highly regressive poverty shock,” meaning its economic costs fall most heavily on those least able to absorb them.
The UNDP is urging governments, development partners, and international financial institutions to move beyond traditional outbreak response models and invest simultaneously in health systems, social protection, livelihoods, and economic resilience. Its policy recommendations include targeted cash transfers and consumption subsidies for vulnerable and female-headed households, a shift from blanket border closures to targeted screening protocols designed to allow informal traders to continue operating safely, and emergency financing mechanisms to ring-fence maternal, reproductive, and infant healthcare services from diversion to the Ebola response.
The report frames the “smart borders” recommendation as directly consistent with the African Continental Free Trade Area’s objective of reducing barriers to intra-African commerce arguing that containment and trade facilitation are not mutually exclusive if screening infrastructure is adequately invested in.
The assessment follows the World Health Organization’s declaration of the outbreak as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on May 17, 2026. The current outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola virus, for which there is currently no licensed vaccine or approved treatment, a factor that complicates containment timelines and increases the probability of the more severe economic scenarios the UNDP report models.
Ethiopia has formally established a legal framework for carbon trading in the forest sector, but forest officials acknowledged today that efforts to convert the potential $200 million USD in forest carbon revenue into actual deals remain stalled in buyer negotiations. Speaking at the Second Agriculture Science Seminar Series, Motuma Tolera (PhD), Head of the Forest Sector Transformation Unit at the Ethiopian Forestry Development, revealed that the Oromia Forested Landscape Program is still in “advanced negotiations” after more than a year of market outreach, highlighting significant gaps between regulatory readiness and actual revenue generation.
The regulatory framework itself is comprehensive. According to the Forest Carbon Trading Directive No. 1122/2025, issued in December and formally discussed today, forest owners and project developers can now register carbon credit projects and jurisdictional programmes, with forest carbon credits defined as tradable units representing one tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent sequestered or reduced from the atmosphere.
Zemen Bank has officially launched its interest-free banking service, branded as “Z-Qamar,” marking the bank’s entry into one of Ethiopia’s fastest-growing financial segments as it seeks to expand its customer base and diversify its product offerings.
The service was unveiled on Thursday, at a ceremony attended by banking executives, religious leaders, and members of the bank’s newly established Sharia Advisory Board.
Speaking at the launch, Zemen Bank Chief Executive Officer Dereje Zebene described the initiative as the culmination of a long-term strategic effort rather than a new standalone product.
“This service is not a new banking service; rather, it is the next chapter of a 17-year journey,” Dereje said, noting that the bank spent the past two years preparing the operational, governance, and compliance frameworks required to launch the service.
Dereje Zebene, Chief Executive Officer of Zemen Bank
Naoll Addisu (PhD), Senior Technology Advisor to the NBE Governor
EBR_News Jun 24, 2026
Betegbar Yaregal
A senior official of the National Bank of Ethiopia has raised concerns over the reliability and depth of the country’s rapidly expanding digital financial system, saying that roughly one in ten digital payment transactions fails to complete successfully.
Speaking at the Huawei Finance Summit 2026 in Addis Ababa on Tuesday, Naoll Addisu (PhD), Senior Technology Advisor to the NBE Governor, said Ethiopia’s financial sector has undergone a compressed digital transformation that has left gaps in consumer protection, infrastructure resilience, and service quality.
“What happened in the West over 25 years happened in Ethiopia in a few years,” he said. “Our communities, our society, have not kept up with the technology.”
He said Ethiopia’s digital payment ecosystem processes large volumes but still faces structural weaknesses, including an estimated 8% transaction failure rate. When transactions fail, he said, users are often transferred between banks, switches, and other intermediaries without clear resolution, with some funds taking months to recover.
For years, banks have invested heavily in customer acquisition, digital transformation, and loyalty programs. Yet many continue to face the same challenge: how do you motivate customers to take the next desired action?
Opening an account is one thing. Funding it is another.
Downloading a mobile banking app is one thing. Becoming an active user is another.
Issuing a card is one thing. Driving regular spend is another.
The missing link is often not technology, products, or pricing. It is customer motivation.
The Shift from Loyalty to Behavioral Engagement
Traditional loyalty programs reward customers after they have demonstrated long-term engagement. While valuable, they do not always influence immediate customer behavior.
Today’s leading banks are increasingly adopting a different approach: reward the behavior you want to encourage, at the moment it happens.
Sumit Khandelwal The Chief Executive Officer at Xoxoday
Imagine a customer receiving an instant reward for:
✔ Funding a newly opened account
✔ Reaching a savings milestone
✔ Activating digital banking
✔ Making their first card transaction
✔ Referring a friend
✔ Maintaining regular loan repayments
The result is a stronger emotional connection and a significantly higher likelihood that the desired behavior becomes habitual.
Why Instant Gratification Matters
Customer expectations have changed.
Consumers today are accustomed to real-time experiences. They expect immediate feedback, immediate service, and increasingly, immediate rewards.
A reward delivered weeks or months later loses much of its impact. A reward delivered instantly creates a memorable moment that reinforces positive behavior.
This is where campaign-driven engagement becomes powerful.
From Campaigns to Measurable Business Outcomes
The most successful banks are no longer running rewards programs simply for engagement.
They are using targeted reward campaigns to achieve specific business objectives:
• Increase deposit growth
• Accelerate digital channel adoption
• Improve card activation rates
• Boost transaction volumes
• Drive customer retention
• Encourage cross-selling and upselling
• Improve customer lifetime value
Every campaign is linked to a measurable business outcome, making ROI easier to track and justify.
The Technology Advantage
Modern campaign management platforms allow banks to design, launch, automate, and measure reward-driven campaigns from a single environment.
Instead of manually managing incentive programs, banks can:
• Segment audiences intelligently
• Trigger rewards automatically based on customer actions
• Personalize offers
• Monitor campaign performance in real time
• Deliver rewards instantly through digital channels
This transforms rewards from a marketing expense into a strategic growth tool.
Looking Ahead
As competition intensifies across banking, fintech, and digital financial services, customer engagement will become one of the key differentiators.
Roshaan Kulpoo, Vice President for Africa, Xoxoday.
The question is no longer whether banks should reward customers.
The question is whether they can do so in a way that drives measurable behavior change and business growth.
Banks that successfully connect customer actions with instant, meaningful rewards will be better positioned to increase engagement, strengthen loyalty, and accelerate growth in the digital era.
In the banking sector in Africa, customer behavior that are promoted today: savings growth, digital adoption, card usage, or customer retention.
The future of banking loyalty is not just about points. It’s about influencing customer behavior in real time. Instant rewards can transform engagement from a cost center into a measurable growth engine. This is the key objective that is customer behavior , engagement , digital banking adoption and accelerating financial inclusion. Speak to Xoxoday a global leading company specialised in customer rewards for the BFSI segment- roshaan.kulpoo@xoxoday.com
African retail banking is undergoing a profound transformation linked to customer engagement and there is a need for promoting instant rewards to the loyal customer.
Customers are becoming increasingly digital, competition from fintechs is intensifying, and traditional loyalty programs are struggling to maintain engagement.
Sumit Khandelwal The Chief Executive Officer at Xoxoday
The Shift from “Earn Later” to “Reward Now”
Modern consumers are accustomed to instant experiences. Whether ordering food, making digital payments, or accessing online services, customers expect immediate value.
Instant rewards address these challenges by rewarding customers immediately when they complete desired actions.
Actions such as account activation, first card transaction, savings milestones, loan repayments, referrals, and digital banking adoption can trigger rewards instantly.
Xoxoday with its flagship product PLUM enables banks to distribute digital rewards, gift cards, prepaid cards, cashback alternatives, vouchers, and experiences through APIs, SMS, email, WhatsApp, mobile banking apps, and web platforms.
Roshaan Kulpoo, Vice President for Africa, Xoxoday.
The platform supports rewards across more than 175 countries and offers millions of redemption choices globally.
The future of retail banking will not be won solely through products and pricing. It will be won through customer experience, engagement, and relevance.
As African banks compete with fintechs, digital wallets, and neobanks, instant rewards offer a powerful mechanism to influence customer behaviour at critical moments of the banking journey.
Banks that reward customers immediately for the behaviours they want to encourage will create stronger relationships, improve loyalty, and accelerate digital growth.
The question is no longer whether rewards matter.
The question is whether your customers are willing to wait for them.
Please contact us on roshaan.kulpoo@xoxoday.com and we shall support your venture of instant customer rewards linked to your retail banking strategy.
Ethiopian Business Review | EBR is a first-class and high-quality monthly business magazine offering enlightenment to readers and a platform for partners.
Betegbar Yaregal
EBR
