Bunna Bank, one of the private financial institutions in Ethiopia, today announced rebranding itself with a new logo and color.
Established by over 10,000 shareholders 12 years ago, used to be named Bunna International Bank. The Bank is named after the top export commodity of Ethiopia – Bunna, meaning ‘coffee’ in Amharic language.
Commenting why the Bank has changed its old logo and rebranded itself, Melaku Birhanu, Communications and Branding Director at Bunna Bank indicated that the new brand is easy to remember, and reduced the complexity in the previous logo.
In the description of the new logo it is stated that “the basic shape of the logo is dawn from rituals and traditions that are familiar to our culture. The circle is prominent in coffee drinking from the cup to the ceremony. Hence, the shape is a homage to that exact aspect of the brand”.
Bunna Bank currently has a total of 1.8 million customers, 2,700 employees, and 14,000 shareholders. It is recalled that last budget year concluded June 30, 2021, Bunna Bank has made 937 million Birr profit before tax showing a decline of 6 percent from the previous year.
Banking Sector
In Ethiopia currently there are 17 private commercial banks including the recent addition Goh Betoch Bank. In addition, one Islamic private bank has also launched operations recently following the new directive by the central bank, National Bank of Ethiopia that gave greenlight for the formation of Islamic banks. Furthermore, several private banks are currently under formation.
Meanwhile still the banking industry in Ethiopia is dominated with the state giant Commercial Bank of Ethiopia which has about half market share in the overall banking sector in Ethiopia.
By the end of 2020/21, the number of banks reached 19, including the newly opened interest free bankZamZam Bank. Last budget year (at the end of June 30, 2021) all the banks in Ethiopia including the government one, have opened a total of 833 new branches, and increased the total number of bank branches in the country to 7,344 from 6,511 the previous year, according to the latest 2020/21 report of the National bank of Ethiopia.
About 34.5 percent of the bank branches were located in Addis Ababa. As a result, one bank branch serves about 14,000 people. This is based on the Central Statstics Agency of Ethiopia’s population projection for 2020/21, which was 102,816,000.
Major branch expansion was undertaken by Awash International Bank (129 branches), Abyssinia Bank (96 branches), Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (95 branches), Nib International Bank (89 branches), Abay Bank (67 branches), Buna Bank (62 braches), Cooperative Bank of Oromia (51 branches), United Bank (39 branches), and Debub Global Bank (37 branches).
The share of private banks in total branch network rose to 72.5 percent from 70.5 percent last year. Total capital of the banking industry increased by 36.2 percent and reached Birr 153.7 billion by the end of June 2021, according to National Bank of Ethiopia.
So far Ethiopia has not opened its door for foreign banks. Meanwhile recently Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has signaled his governmet’s plan to liberalize the banking industry.