The first quarter of the current fiscal year saw a 33pc increase in revenue for the Development Bank of Ethiopia (DBE), with its operations generating more than two billion Birr. President of the Bank, Yohannes Ayalew (PhD), announced that the Bank achieved 87pc of its revenues target for three months. Recovering and reducing non-performing loans (NPL) helped its profit. After dropping from 15 billion Br to nine billion Birr last year, the NPLs rate was stable in the first quarter, excluding the 10.4 billion Br loans advanced to projects in the Tigray Regional State. Executives of the Bank planned to collect 14 billion Br from loans this fiscal year to reduce the NPL level to 10pc from 17pc. According to DBE's performance report, which the Public Enterprises Holding Administration approved on Monday last week, the company made a profit of 743.1 million Br in the first quarter. DBE disbursed 3.5 Billion Br loans during the quarter, showing a 218pc rise. The policy bank has collected 4.8 billion Br from borrowers, exceeding its three-month goal by 218pc.