It will have 60 storeys
Bank of Abyssinia, one of the leading private banks in the country, awarded a construction project to China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) worth USD 400 million.
The bank is set to join the skyline of the city, which will be constructed on 9,763 sq. m of land, leased from the Addis Ababa City Administration in Mexico neighborhood along the road known as the financial district of the city.
The new project was announced during the same period when the Bank passed the recently set five billion birr paid-up capital requirement, five years before the deadline.
The management of the Bank, under the leadership of its president, Bekalu Zeleke wants to use the new building as its headquarters. For the past seven years, the Bank has been using as its headquarters a 15 storey unfinished building, bought from Saca Plc for 400 million birr, a sister company of Ayat.
“It will be one of the tallest buildings in Ethiopia,” said Bekalu, who was the president of the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) when the state giant awarded the same construction company to construct its 46 storey skyscraper next to Ethiopia Hotel.
CSCEC was given the award after vying with another Chinese-owned company, China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), and is expected to begin construction four months later. The project will take five years, according to Bekalu, who believes the addition of the new building will spur economic growth.
The country’s biggest private bank, Awash Bank, is also planning to construct a 50-storey building on its 8,700sq. m of land, with an estimated cost of 12 billion birr.
Located along Mexico area, the Bank is awaiting for an approval for its land lease request to begin construction. Once completed, it will be a second property owned by the Bank, which has already built its headquarters near the premises of the National Theatre.
Nib is the latest to complete the construction of its headquarters, built on 3,600sq.m of land at a cost of two billion birr; 400 million birr higher than the original budget.
