Progress Bank started to sell shares after acquiring permission from the National Bank of Ethiopia. The organizing committee of the Bank gave a press conference last week on Tuesday and revealed that the Bank was officially launched on May 11, 2022 at Friendship Park. According to the committee, the bank aims to support civil society organizations (CSOs) and minimizing their reliance on foreign aid by establishing various fund generating schemes.

The bank’s priority targets include health, education, technology, sanitation, climate change, financial empowerment of women, and employment creation for rural and urban youth.

CSO operators and the private sector were consulted to establish the bank after the CSO proclamation of 2009 was replaced by the new CSO proclamation which was promulgated in 2019.

The shares of the bank are currently being sold at 16 banks including the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia at a par value of Birr 1000.

Source: Capital