The financial sector has been showing remarkable growth following the extensive job done over the past five years, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said.
Responding to queries raised from members of the parliament today, the premier added that financial reform is one of the extensive works the government has done in the last 5 years.
We changed the Birr note, eliminated the purchase of 27 percent government bond of private banks, and formulated law for pastoral areas to be able to borrow with movable assets as collateral, he stated.
The PM revealed that banks in Ethiopia gave loans to less than half a million people in the last 50 or 60 years.
However, after the introduction of digital banking, more than three million people have been able to borrow small amounts of money through mobile banking in only two years, Abiy added.
Today, some 34 million people can access mobile banking, save, and borrow. As we can expand this, it will highly contribute to job creation, the premier noted.
In addition, capital market is expected to become operational beginning next year and help the economic growth of the country and bring high results for growth of individual income.
Ethiopians in the Middle East can buy stock and invest in various companies in addition to saving and sending money to their families, the PM pointed out.
Due to the financial reform that has been underway, the number of banks has jumped to 31 from 18 before the reform, and branches expanded to close to 11,000 from 5,400.
Savings has jumped from some 830 billion Birr to 2.1 trillion Birr in the past four years.
With respect to loan, the 236 billion Birr disbursed four years ago has almost doubled and reached 461 billion Birr, it was noted.
Some 85 percent of the loan this fiscal year was given to the private sector and the remaining to the government, the PM said, adding that this is a huge change when compared with the previous 30 percent for the private sector and 70 percent for government.
It is when the private sector is encouraged that the overall growth of the country progresses, he stressed.
According to him, the total assets of the banks jumped from 1.2 trillion to 2.9 trillion, and the banking sector has brought about remarkable results.
Source: Ethiopian News Agency