Zemen Bank achieved remarkable profit growth in the last fiscal year, amassing 739 million Br. The Bank’s profit soared by 52.8pc, one of the strongest growth rates among competitors.

The massive surge in profit after tax helped Zemen’s earnings per share (EPS) to rise by 64 Br to 462 Br. The EPS grew significantly even though the paid-up capital of the Bank expanded considerably to 1.8 billion Br, a 28.6pc jump.

The impressive performance of Zemen must have been good news to its shareholders, according to Abdulmenan Mohammed, a financial statement analyst based in London, the United Kingdom.

Daniel Abebe, a founding shareholder at Zemen, is already excited by the performance of the Bank. At the beginning of the year, Daniel had a fear that the Bank would not register satisfactory growth, mentioning his reservations about one of the directors he believed should not have been included on the board.

"But it didn't happen," he said. "The board directors and the management did well in dragging the Bank away from slower growth."

Daniel adds that even though Zemen started making a profit in its first year of operations, its decent performance did not last for more than three years, and it has been struggling over the past couple of years.

One of the things that helped Zemen to recover, according to him, was resolving the issue related to the bankrupted Holland Cars, a local car assembly company. Zemen, the major lender for Holland, has been in a court battle to recover loans it gave to the company.

The main reason for the impressive profit performance of Zemen is the massive growth of income from financial intermediation and non-financial intermediation activities. Zemen's profit accounts for 5.3pc of the total profit recorded by the 16 private banks, which amassed 13.9 billion Br in net profit over the last fiscal year.

The massive growth of revenues, which is not matched by the growth in expenses, led to a remarkable increase in profit after tax, according to Abdulmenan.

Interest on loans, advances and National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) bonds increased by 44.6pc to 1.5 billion Br, while income from fees and commissions swelled by 21pc to 539.5 million Br. Income from foreign exchange dealings also went up by 12.9pc to 126.2 million Br, making Zemen one of the few banks that had positive results in forex dealings. Most banks reported a loss from this line of business over the reporting period.

The Bank's expenses on interest for deposits grew by 11.7pc to 593.4 million Br, personnel and other operating expenses surged by 37.3pc to 298.3 million Br and 27.3pc to 200 million Br, respectively.

At the end of the last fiscal year, Zemen’s workforce grew to a total of 998 employees, who work at 52 branches across the country. Last year, the private banking industry underwent a considerable branch network expansion, increasing the total number by 714 to 4,593.

Even though Zemen started with a single branch concept, it currently operates with multiple branches, according to Daniel, who doubled his shares over the past 12 years.

“As long as it’s profitable, it doesn't matter,” he said.