Best bank: Awash Bank
Awash Bank’s strategy is built around extending formal financial services to segments that have historically been underserved by Ethiopia’s banking sector, combining physical expansion with digital distribution and tailored products to deepen customer relationships and broaden financial inclusion.
The scale of that franchise continued to grow in 2025. Retail customers increased by 16.3% to more than 14.3 million, while retail deposits rose 53.9% to ETB1.47 trillion ($9.16 billion) and retail lending expanded 69.9% to ETB60.3 billion, underlining the bank’s growing relevance to households and small businesses across Ethiopia.
Product development increasingly focused on customer segments rather than standard banking categories. Awash expanded specialised offerings including mortgage accounts, salary solutions, student accounts and the Muday savings account, while also adapting traditional community savings structures through products designed for Ethiopia’s traditional Ekub, which are rotating savings and credit associations. The approach helped bring informal savings behaviour into the formal financial system while also strengthening customer retention and deposit mobilisation.
Distribution capabilities continued to widen through a network of more than 1,000 branches, agent banking relationships, partnerships and digital channels. Lending propositions including Awash lehulum, digital farmer, MESMER and tila loan expanded access to short-term financing through digital channels, while selected products provided unsecured credit to customers lacking traditional collateral.
Investment in customer experience centred on simpler onboarding, digital and semi-digital account opening, enhanced branch-level support and dedicated service models for salary earners, traders and MSMEs. Staff training programmes supported these efforts, improving service consistency across the franchise.
At the same time, investments in digital resilience, fraud prevention and biometric authentication strengthened confidence in mobile and digital banking channels, positioning Awash as one of Ethiopia’s leading institutions for combining scale with financial inclusion.
