Anbesa Bank has elected an entirely new board of directors, nine months after the Board it replaces, following regulators’ rejection of that earlier vote. Officials of the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) ordered a fresh election under their watchful eyes.

The clean sweep, at an extraordinary general assembly on Saturday, August 8, 2026, at the Adwa Victory Memorial Museum in front of Menelik Square, could end a boardroom feud the regulators had judged a threat to the Bank and its depositors.

In what was an otherwise peaceful assembly, 11 directors were elected, eight representing shareholders and three independents. They were drawn from 16 shareholder nominees and six independents, including three women.

Shareholders queued outside the hall through the morning, in numbers below the Bank's annual assemblies but sizeable for an election. They granted Mekonnen Gebrewahid, Tsebele Hadush and Kehase Gebremichael the three highest vote counts.

The vote was supervised by senior NBE officials, among them Gemechis Dugasha, director of Regulation, Licensing & Approval; Frezer Ayalew, director of Supervision; and Belay Tulu, director of Insurance Supervision. It removed the previous Board in full, chaired by Alem Asfaw, and including Aklilu Gebreselassie (PhD) and two members from the Bank's executive ranks. None returned. .

Mekonnen, who has spent nearly three decades in insurance and sat on the Bank's Board about a decade ago, drew the most votes. Tsebele, chief executive assistant to the President and a person with more than two decades in the industry, came second. Also elected from the shareholder slate were Yigzaw Amare, Kahsay Haile, Tewodros Amare, Mekuria Alemayehu and Feven Binyam, the Bank's acting chief officer for Loan & Recovery, alongside Kehase.

Hiruy Zemichael, vice president for Information Technology, stood but did not take a seat. Hailemariam Gidey, Kiros Habtu and Awot Birhane were elected as independent directors. The new Board is expected to meet to elect a chairperson and deputy chairperson and assign members to its committees before it begins oversight of the Bank.

The re-run followed the NBE's rejection of Anbesa Bank's November 2025 board election. After shareholder complaints and an investigation, the NBE found that disagreements among directors had undermined the Board's ability to function. Regulators were convinced that the dispute had reached a level that threatened the Bank's stability and the interests of its depositors.

The feud had grown from the Bank's capital increase and the entry of new shareholders. A group led by Aklilu, with Assefach Haileselassie and Andinet Haregewoin, questioned how some of the new shareholders had acquired large stakes. They alleged that some used loans from Anbesa Bank itself to buy shares.

Using a Bank's own money to fund share purchases is outlawed.

"If a person borrows from the Bank and buys its shares, new capital hasn’t entered the institution," said Yisak Teka, a former NBE official now working in the capital market. "The shareholder must have skin in the game. If the institution itself finances ownership, the owner may benefit from public deposits without taking the level of risk that ownership requires."

The opposing camp, led by former Chairperson Alem Asfaw and senior management including the Bank’s President, Daniel Tekeste, defended the capital-raising as lawful and needed to meet the Central Bank’s capital threshold requirements of five billion Birr. The dispute widened into a broader contest over board authority, credit decisions and governance.

Because the NBE barred the former directors from the fresh vote, none was nominated. However, the Bank's management welcomed the result.

According to Daniel, president of Anbesa since 2022, the new directors brought strong professional experience and educational backgrounds.