The National Bank of Ethiopia has extended the launch of its CORE banking solutions by two months, Ethiopia's weekly business paper Fortune reported. NBE has contracted Polaris Financial Technology Ltd., an Indian company for US$3.4 million to replace its outdated Bank Master system with a new CORE banking system called Intellect.

The upgrade is required for compatibility with the National Payment System (NPS) and the new bank reporting system, according to the reports of Fortune. The Central Bank delayed the deployment of the new system as a result of the complexity of the task and Polaris' delay in undertaking analysis of the old system, Fortune reported citing the NBE's Public Relations and Communications director, Dereje Asegdew.

The National Banks has also awarded Afcor PLC. in April 2013, a US$1 million contract for the supply of IBM servers and Oracle software.

Source: Fortune