Ethiopia’s premier Abiy Ahmed received the 2022 Laureate of the Global Islamic Finance Award for efforts made in reforming Ethiopia’s finance sector and making it inclusive.
In a ceremony held at the Djibouti Kempinksy Hotel on September 14, 2022, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed
shared during his speech that “in the last four years alone, Ethiopia’s banking sector nearly doubled in terms of total assets, deposits, loans and branch outreach.
He stated that banking assets are now more than 2 trillion Ethiopian Birr, growing by an average of 25% every year. The policy reform created a favorable regulatory environment for the creation of interest free banks and Islamic windows in nearly all our conventional Banks and financial institutions throughout Ethiopia.
As a result, the Ethiopian interest free banking market now is not only competitive but is thriving with close to 14 million customers and growing, according to Abiy Ahmed. He further underlined that Ethiopia is committed to opening up the banking sector for foreign investment, according to the statement the Office of Prime Minister of Ethiopia.
It is recalled that about a week ago, the Government of Ethiopia has approved a regulation that will allow foreign banks to operate in Ethiopia for the first time.