CBE’s Abe Sano Admits Gaps in Financial Inclusion, Highlights Billions in Strategic Lending

The Ethiopia Finance Forum 2025 officially opened yesterday at the Museum of Art and Science in Addis Ababa, gathering over 150 financial institutions, senior policymakers, and international experts to deliberate on the future of Ethiopia’s financial landscape.

During a high-profile panel on “Financial Inclusion and Deepening: Progress So Far and Priorities Ahead,” Abe Sano, President and CEO of the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE), offered a frank assessment of the bank’s efforts to broaden access to finance.

“Access to finance is something we should have done more about—especially for underserved communities,” Sano admitted. “We have long focused on empowering state-owned enterprises and major business clients, but we recognize the need to do more for individuals and MSMEs.” The CBE has yet to establish a presence in 270 woredas across the country.

Abe emphasized that while CBE currently serves about 140,000 personal borrowers and only 10,000 under commercial finance, the bank has financed over 782,000 customers with ETB 8.8 billion through digital channels. He added that CBE is not detached from digital transformation efforts like Telebirr: “We’re financiers behind those platforms as well.” 

Notably, Abe highlighted the bank’s recent digital financing initiative for farmers, which has onboarded more than 927,000 users in Oromia and disbursed ETB 14 billion in loans. In the housing sector, CBE financed 349,000 condominium units worth ETB 112 billion. However, he conceded that support for micro and small businesses remains limited, with just 9,000 MSME borrowers. “That’s an area we need to scale up significantly,” he stated.

On the savings front, CBE’s outreach to women has seen considerable success. “We now have over 8 million women savers, holding ETB 145 billion in deposits,” Sano revealed.