Bank Client Data Compilation Window Draws to Close

Feb 26 , 2022


A deadline for financial institutions to get a hold of account holders' personal information passed last week, putting clients who have not provided the information at risk of having their accounts blocked. A National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) directive issued last August commits commercial banks, microfinance institutions, and payment instrument issuers to include a tax identification number (TIN), average monthly income, and occupation under all client account information. The requirements also apply when opening new accounts. Banks and microfinance institutions had been given a six-month window to set up a Know Your Customer (KYC) unit at their headquarters, to update customer information and set up a system to monitor transactions deemed "suspicious." Over the past few months, banks have been contacting their clients by phone to gather details and create a comprehensive customer database, though it remains to be seen how much data they have compiled. Last October, the central bank issued a circular that introduced adjustments to the directive. It allows banks to accommodate and include low-income and undocumented nationals who do not possess identification documents, instead using biometric data (photographs and fingerprints).


Radar

CHERRY PICKING

Women around the Koshe area hunt through piles of trash to find scraps of metal to sell. With close to three million people unemployed in the country and a headline inflation of 33pc, unskilled labour is in little demand. Ethiopia has an adult literacy rate of 51pc, with fewer numbers going past high school. Less than three percent of 12th-grade students made it to universities this year while the rest were at the mercy of remedial exams...


Radar

JUNGLE CREW

An old wooden car that was part of a commercial campaign by a furniture company around the Beherawi Theatre area. Ethiopia's forest coverage to national land size has been registered at 15pc to the latest data by the World Bank. The current Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched an initiative labelled 'Green Legacy' to plant five billion trees in 2020 claiming an 83pc success...


Radar

OVER CAPACITY

A young boy attempts to pull a piece of cloth from an overloaded pickup truck around the Ayer Tena area. Observing an unsupervised child on the streets of the capital has become a common sight, with sporadic conflict across the country creating nearly four million internally displaced people. Despite the last census having been conducted 16 years ago, the population of the country is estimated at 120 million...