T-bill Market Sees Dramatic Turnaround

Oct 16 , 2021


The latest round of treasury bill auctions saw an oversubscription by over three billion Birr. Bidders offered 37.5 billion Br, although the central bank brought a total of 34 billion Br worth of bills to the table. The past three auctions attracted considerably lower offers as a result of regulatory changes that affected the liquidity position of commercial banks. Of the 60 billion Br in treasury bills availed in the last two auctions, financial institutions and other participants only offered to buy 11.7 billion Br worth. T-bills with 365-day maturity periods garnered the most offers in the latest auction on October 6, 2021. The cutoff yield for the bills stood at eight percent, one percentage point higher than the minimum interest rate offered on savings. T-bills with maturity periods of 28 and 180 days received the lowest offers, while there were no offers for T-bills with a maturity period of 90 days.


Radar

Electricity Bills Get the VAT Jolt

The new Value Added Tax (VAT) has begun implementation on electricity consumption and various service fees affecting customers who use more than 200 kilowatt hours of electricity per month. Based on a directive from the Ministry of Finance, the tax will be applied to the excess amount of electricity consumption above 200 kilowatt hours. The Ethiopian Electric Utility (EEU) began implementing the VAT on bills starting from November though both prepaid and postpaid customers will have to pay VAT a...


Radar

World Bank Greases Financial Overhaul

The World Bank approved 700 million dollars in credit from the International Development Association (IDA) to scale up support for the financial sector. The funds are targeted at modernizing the regulatory and supervisory framework of the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE), supporting governance reforms, balance sheet restructuring, and recapitalization of the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE), and transforming the Development Bank of Ethiopia (DBE) into a sustainable development finance institutio...


Radar

Gadaa Bank Expands Reach, Faces Lending Constraints

Gadaa Bank closed its first full fiscal year of operations with a net profit of 90.2 million Br. The 18-month-old Bank held its annual general assembly at Millenium Hall on Africa Avenue last week where the board announced that during the year, the Bank opened 15 branches and now has 85 operational branches. “Due to recently enacted policy measures on credit by NBE and unmet resource mobilization during the fiscal year, the Bank was unable to make loan disbursements,” stated Wolde Bulto,...