Bank of Abyssinia Seeks Consultancy to Reach International Standards

The board of directors of the Bank of Abyssinia (BoA), chaired by Mehari Alemayehu, will soon disclose a closed bid winner for a consultancy to study and design the management strategy of the Bank, in order to upgrade the Bank’s system to the international level.

This is following the Bank’s closed auction to hire a consultant announced in May, 2014. The management has selected and shortlisted four international firms, according to a source that is close to the case and prefers not to be named.

These firms includes Deloitte Consulting, Ernst & Young Global, KPMG Consulting and Cooper Walker Limited. The winning company will conduct the study and prepare a strategy to upgrade the Bank’s management system to international standards, replacing the existing strategic plan.

These four consultants have already submitted their proposals and they are under review by the board of directors, which has nine members, according to the source.

The new strategy will cascade the whole structure of the management, from the presidential level to the clerks. Both the management and members of the board of directors confirmed the Bank is still in the selection process, but declined to give further information on the issue, recalling it is in the bidding process.

The exact project cost is yet to be determined, but it is estimated to be around 300,000 to 500,000 dollars, sources told Fortune.

The BoA, one of the nation’s 16 private banks, has recently replaced its former president, Addisu Haba, who resigned after five years at the helm. Following his resignation, the board of directors assigned Mulugeta Asmare, who was operations vice president, as acting president, from September 1, 2014.

Abyssinia was established in 1996 by 131 shareholders and 32 employees, with an authorised 50 million Br capital and a paid up capital of 17.8 million Br. The bank has provided total loans and advances of 5.3 billion Br and currently employs 2,800 staff members. The bank has 1,515 shareholders and 400,000 account holders through its 103 branches across the country.