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The Board of Directors of Zemen Bank have nominated
Anteneh Assefa, vice president of operations at Bank
of Abyssinia (BoA), to be its president and
submitted his name to the National Bank of Ethiopia
(NBE) for acceptance.
Zemen had been without a president since Brutawit
Dawit Abdi, who had served for two years, resigned
on April 12, 2011, citing personal reasons. It had
appointed Helawi Tadesse as acting president. Helawi,
who is a graduate of Princeton in economics and
public policy, and Reed College graduate in
economics, was serving as senior vice president at
the time.
He came to Zemen Bank, which was established in 2008
with a paid up capital of 150 million Br, with
experience at the International Monetary Fund (IMF),
where he worked as a senior economist.
Antheneh, 37, will come to the bank, if his
nomination is accepted by the central bank, with 11
years of experience in the banking sector under his
belt. He started his career as a graduate trainee at
the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) and worked
there for eight years before he joined BoA as a
board secretary. He left CBE as a senior officer and
became vice president of BoA three and half years
ago.
Anteneh Assefa
Before he joined the banking industry, he received
his first degree from Addis Abeba University in
Management and a graduate degree from the University
of Paris (Sorbonne) in Corporate Management &
Finance.
The nomination of Anteneh, who is married and has
two daughters, was sent to the central bank three
weeks ago after the board of Zemen approved his
nomination.
There was a serious meeting of the board of
directors assessing professionals in the sector for
the job before he was selected, according to a
source inside the board.
The nomination has been received by NBE, Fortune
confirmed. However, Solomon Desta, bank supervision
director of the central bank, declined to comment on
the issue.
Anteneh’s nomination will be evaluated based on the
fit and proper directive, which excludes individuals
of certain backgrounds from board membership and
executive position at banks. It excludes those who
have resigned from positions, as well as those who
have been fined, suspended, or fired from being
presidents of banks. It also excludes those who have
been refused a license by a professional, trade or
regulatory body due to fraud, negligence or
violations of law.
If approved, Antheneh will move from Abyssinia,
which has 48 branches, to Zemen, which is a single-
branch model supplemented by multiple service points
such as ATMs, Point of Sale (POS) terminals, and
Foreign Exchange Bureaus.
However, his appointment was news to Addisu Habba,
president of BoA, who claimed not have heard about
it. Anteneh also declined to comment on the issue.
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