Dashen Bank Share Company announced a profit of more than 630 million birr in 2010/11 fiscal year. The announcement was made at the 17th regular meeting of the bank on Tuesday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The Bank paid 179 million birr in profit tax to the government from its profit according to Teklu Haile Chairperson of the Board of Directors.

The Bank’s deposit is currently 11.8 billion birr and its total assets have grown to 11.8 billion according to Lulseged Teferi President of the Bank.

It is to be remembered that Dashen Bank launched services for UnionPay Card this week.  This service is aimed to serve the increasing numbers of Union Card holders including the growing number of Chinese citizens in Ethiopia according to Lulseged.

Dashen Bank is the first Bank in Africa to sign a partnership agreement with UnionPay said Lulseged. It is expected that agreement with UnionPay, which has over 2.5 billion clients worldwide, will significantly influence the growth of Dashen he explained.

Speaking at an even held at the Sheraton Addis Hotel the President of Dashen explained that the bank earned 75 million US dollars from payment card services, last year. Dashen Bank currently has a total of 160,000 ATM card user clients although finding customers was difficult when the card payment system was launched in Ethiopia explained Lulseged.

Source: Ethiopia Press Agency