CBE’s VP Leaves to Commodities Exchange

Belay Gorfu leaves his position as the vice president of the country’s largest bank to become the Chief Financial Officer (CEO) at the Ethiopian Commodities Exchange (ECX).

The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) has filled the vacancy with one of Belay’s peers at the Bank.

Belay had been with the CBE for 13 years, starting out as a clerk three years after graduating from Addis Abeba University. He got his Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Birmingham, with a specialty in Finance & International Banking. When Bekalu Zeleke became the bank’s president in 2008, Belay became advisor to the president, becoming director of planning the following year.  He was later appointed to the position of vice president in November 2010 with a salary of 12,000 Br, which he held for the past two years.

The position he left is a very high ranking one as it is directly below the president. The Bank, which currently has 675 branches countrywide, pays a comparably lower salary than other banks. President, Bekalu Zeleke, was paid only 14,116 Br a month in 2011/12. Zemen Bank paid its president at the time, Brutawit Dawit, 40,000 Br. Dashen, Berhan and Nib also paid their presidents 39,395 Br, 36,000 Br and 30,000 Br, respectively. The number of branches, deposit mobilization and profits at these banks are all significantly lower than the state owned giant.

It is the second time that the Ethiopian Commodities Exchange has filled a senior position with executives from the banking sector. Anteneh Assefa, the CEO who took over from Eleni Gebremedhin (PhD), used to be vice president at the Bank of Abyssinia. Eleni was instrumental in setting up the exchange from the beginning.

“He was a hard worker, organised and qualified for the position,” said a vice president at the CBE, speaking about Belay, with the same confidence for his replacement, Mulugeta  Alemayehu, who had been Chief Risk & Compliance Management Officer at the CBE.

“He has worked in finance, before as a chief risk & compliance officer,” the executive said.

The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) was not notified of the new appointment, according to Yesehak Mengesha, Business Development Director at the CBE, because the two positions have the same grade and salary scale.

“It is more like a change of posts, not a promotion,” he said.

Belay’s employment with the CBE was officially terminated as of April 30, 2011.


Posted

in

by

Tags:

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.