Ethiopian Capital Market Authority has approved the registration of securities for Abay Bank S.C., marking another milestone in the development of Ethiopia’s emerging capital market ecosystem.
In a notice issued on Monday, the Authority announced that it had approved Abay Bank’s Registration Statement in accordance with Articles 4 and 29 of the Public Offer and Trading of Securities Directive No. 1030/2024. The registration covers 9,657,286 existing shares already held by the bank’s shareholders.
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The ECMA stated that all securities offered or sold to the public must be registered unless specifically exempted under the Directive. It also noted that issuers are required to register securities held by shareholders before the issuance of the Directive.
“This notice is published solely to notify the public of the registration of securities by the Authority and shall not be construed as an endorsement of the offer, offer to sell, or solicitation of an offer to buy any securities,” the statement reads.
Abay Bank’s registration is the latest in a series of approvals as Ethiopia’s nascent capital market gains momentum following the launch of the Ethiopian Securities Exchange.
In February 2026, the ESX confirmed that six commercial banks, Awash Bank, Dashen Bank, Bank of Abyssinia, Abay Bank S.C., Anbesa Bank, and Amhara Bank, had received “Approval in Principle” to list on the ESX Main Market. Securities registration with the ECMA is considered one of the final regulatory steps before formal listing.
The Authority has been processing registrations at an accelerating pace in recent months. On March 16, 2026, the ECMA approved the registration of 54,066,089 existing ordinary shares of Awash Bank, paving the way for the bank’s historic listing the following month.
More recently, on April 21, 2026, the Authority approved the Registration Statement of Zemen Bank S.C., registering 15,000,000 shares already held by existing shareholders.
The growing pipeline of registrations signals increasing momentum for Ethiopia’s long-awaited capital market reforms, as banks position themselves for public trading and broader investor participation.
