Cooperative Bank of Oromia grosses a profit of almost four billion birr during the just-ended fiscal year, helping it retain the top three status the financial institution held in the industry since last year.
Industry insiders say the profit will be the third highest in the industry, just next Awash and Bank of Abyssinia, which are yet to announced their financial result for the last fiscal year.
Under the presidency of Derbie Asfaw, who has been leading CBO for the last five years after leaving his post as a vice president of the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, the Bank managed to reverse the financial meltdown it has experienced during the tenure its previous managers.
"We managed to get more customers than any other financial institutions in Ethiopia," said Gadisa Mamo, vice president of the Bank, citing this as a major factor for the success of CBO.
With nine million customers, the Bank has collected a deposit of almost 100 billion birr. Its paid-up capital has reached 7.7 billion birr.
CBO also performed well in mobilzing foreign currencies. About 435 million dollar have been secured by the Bank last fiscal year, historic-high for the company.
The reporting period had been challenging too.
"We have faced some obstacles when collecting unpaid loans," said Gadisa.
The Bank has an outstanding loan of 84.2 billion birr, an increase from 55 billion birr in 2020/21.
