The Ethiopian Securities Exchange (ESX) has published a first trading report for the interbank money market covering the week 30 June-4 July. The ESX provides its electronic trading platform to the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE), which operates the lending market for traders at the commercial banks in order to boost financial liquidity. Trading is in overnight and 7 days loans between the banks.
According to the trading report, published here on LinkedIn, nearly ETB 9.7 billion ($71.4 million) was lent via the platform in five days to 4 July. The weighted average lending rates for the week were equivalent to 12.0% annual for the overnight and 14.4% annual for the 7-day loans.
Trading on the interbank money market started on 31 October 2024 (see our report here), and by 4 July a total of ETB 833.9bn birr ($6.1bn) has been traded on the ESX platform.
The ESX and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) on 16 May announced a strategic partnership to develop the Ethiopian money market. A well-structured money market enables market-based pricing of short-term financial instruments such as Treasury bills and commercial papers and boosts liquidity, transparency and confidence in the capital market.
The ESX announced: “As part of the initiative, the project will support the establishment of a national dealers’ association to represent participants in Ethiopia’s local currency and foreign exchange interbank markets.”
On 30 June, the NBE issued the Dematerialization of Government and NBE Securities Directive #MFAD/001/2025 (available here) mandating the dematerialization of government and NBE securities. Moving away from paper certificates of ownership and digital ownership registration on the Central Securities Depository operated by NBE paves the way for electronic trading of these securities on the ESX platforms.
(Photo: Tom Minney, African Capital Markets News)