International Stories | Apr 15,2020
Jan 18 , 2020
By DIBORA SAMSON ( FORTUNE STAFF WRITER
)
The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) gave a green light to Melaku Kebede as the fifth president of United Bank, replacing Taye Dibekulu.
The central bank approved Melaku's appointment on January 14, 2020. The board of directors of the Bank appointed him as an acting president on December 12, 2019, following the resignation of Taye, who served as president for six years.
Melaku has worked in the banking industry for 14 years, 11 years of which as a vice president. He served Zemen and United banks as a vice president for four and seven years, respectively. Melaku earned both his first and second degree from Addis Abeba University in physics and information science.
Melaku took part as a study team leader in establishing Eth-Switch, which enables all banks to have ATM inter-operability. He has worked in the preparation of the financial national cybersecurity framework for financial institutes together with the Information Network Security Agency and NBE.
“I didn't have any special feelings, except making myself ready to face challenges that I always liked in my past experiences,” Melaku told Fortune.
Before Taye, Berhanu Getane, Admassu Techane and Kebede Temesgen had served as presidents of United.
The latest ex-president, Taye, graduated from Addis Abeba University (AAU) with a bachelor's in accounting in 1985. He started his career at the Development Bank of Ethiopia a few months after his graduation. He completed his master's degree in business administration in the United Kingdom in 2001. He joined United Bank as vice president 13 years ago, and seven years later he became president.
On January 4, 2020, the Bank bid a farewell to Taye at Hilton Addis and awarded him a Land Cruiser V8, which he has been driving while in office. He also received half a million Birr and a gold chain necklace with the logo of the Bank.
While serving as a vice president, his incumbent Melaku was involved in the bank's achievement in launching multi-channel banking services. He was part of the launching of interest-free banking and a new way of handling the local remittance services called Broadband Local Money Transfer (BLMT ) and loan origination workflow, a process by which a borrower applies for a new loan and a lender processes the application.
“I have a dream to make United a digitally-oriented Bank that brings innovative banking products to the market and becomes a most preferred bank in Ethiopia as well as in East Africa," said Melaku.
The Bank netted 770.2 million Br in the last fiscal year. It also managed to increase its paid-up capital to nearly 2.3b Br. However, last year it faced a huge decline in foreign exchange gains. Currently, the Bank has 4,064 employees that serve at the 274 branches throughout the country.
PUBLISHED ON
Jan 18,2020 [ VOL
20 , NO
1029]
International Stories | Apr 15,2020
Fortune News | Jan 30,2021
Commentaries | May 07,2022
Radar | Apr 16,2022
Radar | Oct 23,2021
Fortune News | Jan 09,2021
Radar | Jun 07,2020
Fortune News | Oct 12,2019
Radar | Feb 09,2019
Fortune News | Dec 14,2019
Dec 24 , 2022
Biniam Mikru heads the department of cabinet affairs under Mayor Adanech Abiebie. But...
Jul 2 , 2022 . By RUTH TAYE
On a rainy afternoon last week, a coffee processing facility in the capital's Akaki-Qality District was abuzz with activ...
Nov 27 , 2021
Against my will, I have witnessed the most terrible defeat of reason and the most sa...
Nov 13 , 2021
Plans and reality do not always gel. They rarely do in a fast-moving world. Every act...
Mar 18 , 2023
Ethiopia's economy once hailed as a paragon of growth and development, now faces a co...
Mar 11 , 2023
Ethiopia is rapidly emerging as one of China's top African debtors, second only to An...
Mar 4 , 2023
Once again, Ethiopia has claimed international attention in the past few weeks for re...
Feb 25 , 2023
Millions of people in Ethiopia have continued to be deprived of access to information...
Loading your updates...