Ethiopia’s central bank has removed the chief executive of Global Bank Ethiopia and barred him from senior roles in the country’s financial sector for five years after a special inspection found deficiencies in governance, lending, foreign exchange operations and financial management.
The National Bank of Ethiopia removed Tesfaye Boru from his position effective July 28 and barred him from serving in senior executive or board positions at any Ethiopian financial institution, citing provisions of the Banking Business Proclamation No. 1360/2025 and a banking supervision directive.
The action followed an investigation into the bank and came after earlier warnings to Tesfaye, underscoring the central bank’s increasingly assertive approach to banking-sector supervision as Ethiopia reforms its financial system and seeks to strengthen confidence in commercial banks.
The NBE’s inspection identified deficiencies in corporate governance, lending and credit administration, human-resource management, foreign exchange operations and overall financial management, according to the removal order.
The inspection followed an NBE inquiry into the alleged rapid withdrawal of a time deposit worth hundreds of millions of birr, according to earlier reporting. Global Bank’s board subsequently began its own review at the request of shareholders after the central bank inquiry was launched.
The central bank cited written warnings issued to Tesfaye in May 2021 and November 2024 in its decision to remove him. It said the seriousness of the inspection findings, together with his previous regulatory history, warranted the five-year ban.
Global Bank’s board said in a statement that the removal of Tesfaye and six other executives was part of a governance and compliance overhaul following internal evaluations and directives from the central bank.
The board had by early August suspended 18 executives, including a board member, as the investigation widened.
The bank said the executives eventually terminated included Tesfaye and six senior executives and managers: the former vice president of core banking, three department directors, a branch manager and a district operations manager.
The leadership changes come as Ethiopia’s banking sector undergoes significant regulatory and structural changes.
The NBE has been tightening supervision while pursuing reforms intended to increase competition, strengthen banks’ capital positions and modernize the financial system. The regulator has also been moving toward a more market-oriented foreign exchange regime, increasing the importance of banks’ risk management and compliance systems.
Global Bank’s board initially nominated Chief Corporate Banking Officer Sahlemichael Mekonnen as acting president. The central bank rejected the nomination, saying he did not meet the legal requirements for the position.
The bank subsequently appointed Sahlemichael as acting chief executive officer, according to an August 8 announcement.
Global Bank said it had submitted a corrective action plan to the NBE addressing the inspection findings and that its actions were in compliance with regulatory directives. It said normal commercial operations, branch services and digital banking platforms remained functional.
The bank reported paid-up capital of 5 billion birr, meeting the NBE’s capital requirement introduced for June 2026 ahead of the deadline. Its total assets increased 42% to more than 34.4 billion birr, while customer deposits rose 41% to 25.75 billion birr, according to the board’s statement.
The episode illustrates the growing regulatory pressure on Ethiopia’s commercial banks as they expand rapidly and take on a larger role in an economy undergoing financial liberalization.
Ethiopia’s banking industry has historically been dominated by domestic institutions, with the sector operating under extensive state regulation. The government has in recent years pursued reforms aimed at attracting foreign investment, increasing competition and broadening access to financial services.
The NBE’s actions against Global Bank also highlight the importance of governance and controls as Ethiopian banks expand their balance sheets and increase their exposure to lending, foreign exchange and digital financial services.
Neither the central bank nor Global Bank immediately provided further details on the deposit inquiry beyond the information contained in the regulatory and corporate disclosures.
Faustine Ngila is the AI Editor at Impact Newswire, based in Nairobi, Kenya. He is an award-winning journalist specializing in artificial intelligence, blockchain, and emerging technologies.
He previously worked as a global technology reporter at Quartz in New York and Digital Frontier in London, where he covered innovation, startups, and the global digital economy.
With years of experience reporting on cutting-edge technologies, Faustine focuses on AI developments, industry trends, and the impact of technology on society.
Zanele Muholi (South Africa)
Most Famous Photo: Images from their ongoing series “Faces and Phases,” which documents the lives of black
lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex individuals in South Africa.
Short Bio: Born in 1972, Zanele Muholi is a visual activist and photographer who focuses on empowering and reclaiming the visibility of the LGBTQIA+ community in South Africa. Their powerful black-and-white portraits challenge stereotypes and highlight the struggles and triumphs of individuals often marginalized and subjected to violence.
The Final Judgement
Fun South African Fact: The world’s largest themed resort hotel in the world – The Palace of the Lost City – is found in South Africa. Surrounding the Palace is a 25 hectare manmade botanical jungle with almost 2 million plants, trees and shrubs.
new cycle
The Man who could only Drink Milk
I know an old man who had lived a life full of adventure, but his health started to catch up with him. He\’d run the Boston Marathon, was an avid surfer, and climbed Everest, but he\’d started to have abdominal pains around his 85th birthday and went to see a doctor. Sadly, he ultimately was diagnosed with a rare degenerative liver disease that slowly made him allergic to everything he ate.
He kept copious notes, and as an avid gastronomist slowly grew to despair as everything he\’d spent his life enjoying became something he could no longer eat. Alcohol went first, then mushrooms, then bread, then root vegetables, then coffee, one at a time he had to remove them from his diet. The doctor was clear: if he kept eating something his liver rejected the autoimmune response would be quick and severe, and would lead to a painful death. Little by little, everything was taken away as an option, until the only thing that remained was milk.
In some ways, this actually made life easier, because the mental strain of remembering what he could and couldn\’t eat was gone, but then so was the joy in variety. But he took it in stride, and got his own cow and took classes from a farmer to learn everything he could about the only thing that could give him sustenance. And even within milk, he could still have yogurt, butter, cream, some cheeses, and other milk-derived products he hadn\’t fully rejected yet, so it wasn\’t all bad. But then one day a few months later he felt the pain again, and he knew cow\’s milk was no longer an option.
Lacking other options, he tried goat\’s milk, and he was delighted that it worked! The protein structure is just different enough that his body still tolerated it. That bought him another month. And that\’s when we came up with a wonderful plan to go on one last grand adventure around the world. If he could get one month of life out of the milk of every mammal, he\’d actually have a few more years to enjoy life to the fullest and see the world in all its beauty. Each month, we\’d pick a place with a new mammal, and he would immerse himself fully with the locals, learn all the ways to prepare the milk, and just enjoy the hand he had been dealt as much as he could.
We milked sheep in New Zealand. Camels in Egypt. Zebras in South Africa. Giant bats in Indonesia. Do you know how many Peruvian cuy you need to milk to get a single glass? I do. Even as his health slowly faded, he stayed cheerful, and I felt lucky to join him on the adventure of a lifetime. That brings us to today when he got to the very end of his spreadsheet, and declared that he was now allergic to every mammal. He\’d enjoyed his journey, but his time had come to an end, for there was nothing left to milk.
To which I said nonsense, I bet we can milk a few thousand karma out of this post.