The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) has approved Ermias Andarge as the third president of Enat Bank beginning December 31, 2020. Ermias served as vice president of Enat for the past six years before replacing Wondwossen Teshome who resigned mid-last month.

A father of three, Ermias has been working in the banking industry for the past 23 years. He was employed at Bank of Abyssinia for 15 years in different capacities, the last of which was as finance director. He then joined Enat eight years ago and worked as director of finance and vice president in charge of corporate services.

Ermias had been working as Enat's vice president for the last six years until he was appointed as acting president on December 14, 2020. His predecessor, Wondwossen, had served for seven years as the head of Enat, which has 18,874 shareholders, after he was appointed to replace the founding president, Fasika Kebede.

Fasika left in October 2013 following a disagreement with the board of directors. Following Fasika's departure, Birtukan Gebreegzi, who was recently appointed as president of Wegagen Bank, served as acting president for over three months until Wondwossen was named the new head.

Ermias holds a diploma and a B.A. degree in accounting from Addis Abeba University School of Commerce and Addis Abeba University, respectively. He also obtained his master's degree in international business from the University of Greenwich in the United Kingdom.

Wondwossen, the outgoing president, has close to four decades of experience in management, supervision, consulting, and operational roles in the banking industry. He also worked as a senior advisor at the then Agency for Supervision & Regulation of State Banks and as president of the Development Bank of Ethiopia (DBE) between February 2006 and January 2009. Wondwossen received his baccalaureate degree in accounting from Addis Abeba University (AAU) and a master’s degree in business administration, majoring in international business, from the University of Greenwich in London.