A Brief History Of The Development Bank Of Ethiopia: DBE

    The development bank of Ethiopia (DBE) is one of the financial institutions engaged in providing short, medium and long term development credits. DBE’s distinguishes feature is its “project” based lending tradition. Project financed by the Bank are carefully selected and prepared through appraised, closely supervised and systematically evaluated.

    Since its establishment in 1909, the bank has been playing a significant role in promoting overall economic development of the country.

   The history of Development Bank of Ethiopia goes back to 1909 when the first attempts of its kind known as The Societe Narionale d' Ethiopie Pour le Development de l' agriculture et de Commerce (The Society for the promotion of Agriculture and Trade) was established in the Menelik II era. Since then the Bank has taken different names at different times although its mission and business purpose has not undergone significant changes except for occasional adjustment that were necessitated by change in economic development policies of the country.

The under listed names and periods are its predecessors since initial establishment: -

        Agricultural Bank of Ethiopia from 1945-1949

Agricultural and Commercial Bank of Ethiopia from 1949-1951

Development Bank of Ethiopia Share Company from 1951-1970

Investment Bank of Ethiopia from 1964-1970

Agricultural and Industrial Development Bank Share Company from 1970-1979

Agricultural and Industrial Development Bank from 1979-1994

Development Bank of Ethiopia from 1994-2003.

Development Bank of Ethiopia (after reestablishment from 2003 till now)

      In long years of existence, DBE has established recognition at national and international levels .Nationally, it is the sole Bank with reputable experience in long term investment financing .Internationally, and it is recognized as an important on leading channel for development program financed by bilateral and/or multilateral sources.