Oromia International Bank Acquires 13-Storey Building With 210M BR

The Oromia International Bank (OIB) is moving its headquarters to the 13-storey SA building on Africa Avenue,Bole Road. It bought the building for 210 million Br in June 2013.

The building, located next to the Getu Commercial Centre, belonged to SA – a Garad Plc sister company, named after the brothers owning it, Salahadin and Abdulhamid Abubeker. It lies on a 1,192sqm plot, leased for 2,100 Br a square metre, and its construction was estimated to have cost 50 million Br before it was opened for business in late 2006.

The OIB’s move, which will happen in the next three to four months, will be officially announced on October 25, 2013. This will take place during the celebration of the bank’s five-year anniversary, according to Abi Sano, president of the OIB.

The decision to buy a whole building was made in favour of the high cost of renting one in a premium location, Abi said. The building was selected from a list of 20, 15 of which were rejected outright due to location issues or a lack of adequate facilities.

Its current headquarters is in a rented building in Senga Terra, onRas Abebe Aregay Street. Problems with infrastructure prompted the search for new premises, according to Abi.

“Senga Terra is currently being  demolished in the government’s redevelopment plans, therefore we are constantly plagued with electricity, water and network problems,” he said. “This is a big hindrance to our company’s development, especially the network issue, since our database is found at the headquarters. The network problem not only affects us, but all our branches.”

The Bank has also hired a consultancy firm to design a 29-floor building, where it eventually wants to move its headquarters to, by 2020. The architects have until June 2014 to deliver their design. This building will sit on a 2,000sqm plot of land alongSudan Streetin Lideta District, near the Ministry of Health. It will have five underground floors.

In addition to infrastructure-related issues, the search for new premises was also prompted by the Bank’s expansion of its services to include electronic, corporate and interest-free banking.

The OIB recorded 102 million Br profit, a 56.4pc increase from the previous year, according to its unaudited annual report of 2012/13 fiscal year. The total amount of deposits increased by 44pc to reach 3.1 billion Br and the Bank’s capital has risen to more than 600 millionBr.

This is the second property that the Bank has bought to use as an office. The first one is found in Ginir town in the Southern Regional State, 548km south of Addis Abeba. This cost 1.5 million Br to acquire. The OIB started operations in October 2008, and now has 68 branches across the country. In the last budget year alone, the company opened 27 branches. An additional 40 new branches are planned this year. 

 


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.