Abyssinia Bank registered a net profit of 562.8 million Br in the last financial year, a 10pc increase. But dividends to shareholders declined to 6.1 Br per share.

During the previous 2016/17 financial period, the bank registered a 40pc growth and paid out 8.7 Br per share.

Its president, Mulugeta Asmare, blamed stringent laws enacted by the central bank as the major cause of the performance slowdown.

The central bank's revisions include increasing savings and time deposit interest rates by two percentage points, imposing a credit cap on non-export and non-manufacturing businesses, implementing a new law that orders banks to cede 30pc of their foreign exchange earnings to the central bank, and retaining the same percentage in bank reserves.

"These regulations have affected the performance of our Bank," Mulugeta told Fortune.

Meseret Taye, the Bank's board chairperson, agrees with the president.

"The National Bank of Ethiopia has endorsed multi-faceted and stringent regulatory requirements. These rules have negatively impacted the performance of commercial banks," wrote Meseret in the shareholders address of the Bank's financial statement.

Mulugeta also attributed the slow down of the economy to the decline in growth.

Revenues from financial intermediation, however, did contribute to the profit growth of the Bank. Abyssinia's revenue from interest on loans and advances and NBE bills soared to 2.7 billion Br, a 70pc increase from the previous year.

The Bank’s investment in NBE bills increased by 21 pc to 6.3 billion Br. Its assets also reached 32 billion Br, a 21pc increase from the preceding year. The ratio of liquid assets to total assets also increased by 0.7 percentage points to 14pc, while the ratio of liquid assets to total deposits rose to 17.4pc.

Deposit mobilisation increased to 25.7 billion Br and loan disbursement grew to 18 billion Br. The Bank’s loan-to-deposit ratio reached 68.9pc, which is above the industry average.

“As we have a genuine and loyal customer base in the export and manufacturing sector, we have managed to disburse sufficient loans,” Mulugeta added.

During the last financial year, the Bank made major investments, including investing 87 million Br in the construction of a 10-storey building in Semein Mazegaja on Belay Zeleke Street. The Bank also upgraded its core banking system and built a new database centre with an additional 110 million Br investment. In addition, the Bank is building offices in Hawassa, with 80pc of the construction completed to date.

The Bank's capital and non-distributable reserve, including revaluation reserve, reached 3.8 billion Br. Its paid-up capital reached 2.5 billion Br, a 42pc increase.