Dashen Bank

Stock performance

History

Dashen Bank was founded as one of the first private banks permitted to operate in Ethiopia following the fall of the communist Derg government, when the country began allowing limited private banking activity alongside the dominant state-owned Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, and grew into one of Ethiopia's largest private banks.

Business model

Dashen Bank provides retail and corporate banking services across Ethiopia, operating as one of the country's leading private banks in a financial sector still dominated by the state-owned Commercial Bank of Ethiopia but gradually opening to greater private and eventually foreign competition.

Market position

Dashen Bank is one of the largest private banks in Ethiopia, competing with Awash Bank and other domestic private lenders in a sector that remains smaller in aggregate than the dominant state bank but has grown steadily since Ethiopia first permitted private banking in the 1990s.

Country impact

Dashen Bank is one of the more significant private financial institutions in Ethiopia, and its continued growth reflects the gradual expansion of Ethiopia's private banking sector even as the country moves cautiously toward opening its financial system to foreign bank entry.