Nib Bank Sues Former Directors, Executives

Nib Bank Sues Former Directors, Executives

Jul 19 , 2025. By NAHOM AYELE ( FORTUNE STAFF WRITER )

In an unprecedented legal manoeuvre, the management of Nib International Bank (NIB) has filed a sweeping civil lawsuit against 30 of its former board members, senior executives, and audit officials.

The charges, filed at the Federal High Court, civil bench, accuse the defendants of gross mismanagement, regulatory breaches, and self-dealing that allegedly resulted in hundreds of millions of Birr in losses and eroded shareholders’ confidence in the Bank.

Incorporated in 1999 with 27.6 million Br in paid-up capital, Nib Bank has expanded its shareholders base to 5,900 and grown to amass over 65 billion Br in assets. It operates more than 420 branches across the country.

At the centre of the complaint are high-profile figures, including former Board Chairman Woldetensay Woldegiorgis, ex-President Genene Ruga, and Alemayehu Gurmu (PhD), an economist by training. Another defendant, Melaku Woldemariam, currently serves as a commissioner on the Ethiopian National Dialogue Commission.

Officials removed by the Bank’s General Assembly between 2022 and 2023 are at the centre of the lawsuit, which appeals to the court to hold them jointly and individually liable for the 507 million Br in claimed damages.

Lawyers representing Nib Bank, Sintayehu Zeleke & Associates, claim a pattern of alleged infractions that span from September 2021 through early 2024. They allege that the defendants undermined the Bank’s liquidity position, ignored warnings, and operated in violation of explicit directives from the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE).

Notable among the charges is the approval of over five billion Birr in loans, despite a formal NBE directive in 2023 suspending new lending to protect liquidity buffers.

Former Board Chairman Woldetensay is accused not only of breaching that directive, but of directly benefiting from it through Awdas Trading Plc, a company under his control. The complaint alleges he further awarded promotional contracts to Balageru Multimedia, a company in which he held shares, in alleged non-transparent deals that bypassed competitive procurement processes.

The misconduct, according to the Bank’s filing made on May 8, 2025, was not isolated to lending.

Former President Genene, who led the Bank’s foreign exchange allocation committee, allegedly used his position to procure hard currency permits for himself and his associates, while delaying NIB’s obligations abroad and incurring penalties. Mulugeta Dilnesaw, the former director of risk and compliance, is accused of ignoring liquidity red flags and approving loans to executives and their relatives.

Internal control failures appear equally central to the case filed by Nib Bank’s lawyers. They allege manipulation of financial reports, which the Bank claims led to flawed tax payments and obscured the proper financial health of the financial institution. An audit report cited by Nib Bank claims inconsistencies between declared earnings and actual deposit income, resulting in 25 million Br in overpaid taxes. Former external auditor Tewodros Fikre is accused of having overlooked serious breaches, including unauthorised foreign exchange allocations and non-compliance with lending policy.

Beyond internal governance lapses, Nib Bank attributed regulatory fines, amounting to over 132 million Br, to the defendants’ decisions. These include alleged missed reserve requirements, delayed treasury bond purchases, and failure to settle Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) payments. The lawsuit claims additional penalties for foreign exchange planning errors and unpaid loans from the NBE, totalling over 40 million Br. Compounding the damage, tax miscalculations allegedly cost the Bank another 305 million birr.

The Bank’s management now seeks to recover not only damages, but also nine percent annual interest from the date of the lawsuit’s filing.

PUBLISHED ON Jul 19,2025 [ VOL 26 , NO 1316]