New HQ for Commerical Bank of Ethiopia

Chinese company to build tallest building in east Africa

The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) is to build a new headquarters in Addis Ababa following a deal with the China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC).

When complete, the 46-storey building will be 198-m in height, making it the tallest structure in east Africa, and just 26 metres short of displacing the 223-m-high Carlton Centre as the continent's tallest building.

The new bank headquarters has been designed by Germany's Henn Architekten, a Berlin-based architectual firm which recently won the competition to design the 280-m Cenke Tower in Taiyuan in north China's Shanxi province.

The CSCEC was also behind the construction of the African Union (AU) conference centre in Addis Ababa, inaugurated in early 2012, as part of the Chinese government's efforts to promote integration and unification in Africa.

The CBE is the largest commercial bank in Ethiopia, with more than 900 branches nationwide and about 22,000 employees.