Sidama Bank S.C. began trading on the Ethiopian Securities Exchange (ESX) on Monday, opening at Br 1,300 per share under the ticker SIDAX, in a quiet debut that saw nine shares change hands.

The listing makes the former microfinance lender the seventh confirm company on the bourse’s Main Market.

Wegagen Capital Investment Bank acted as transaction advisor on the listing, preparing the bank’s prospectus and guiding it through the regulatory process with ECMA and the exchange.

The listing completes a process that moved quickly over the summer. In July, the ESX granted Approval in Principle to four companies to list on its Main Market: Ayat S.C., Sidama Bank, Nib Insurance S.C., and ZamZam Bank. Shortly afterward, the Ethiopian Capital Market Authority (ECMA) registered 1,447,002 of the bank’s existing shares after approving its Registration Statement on July 20, 2026. That registration did not involve a public offering of new shares; it brought securities already held by existing shareholders into compliance with the country’s capital market rules.

From microfinance to the trading floor

Sidama Bank has a short history as a bank but a long one as a lender. Its roots go back to 1994, when the Sidama Microfinance Institution was set up to serve underserved communities in the Sidama region, particularly coffee-farming households. It was relicensed as a full commercial bank on July 1, 2022.

A pipeline dominated by finance

Sidama Bank joins a market still dominated by lenders. Before the latest listings, the ESX had six: state-owned Ethio Telecom plus Abay Bank, Awash Bank, Bank of Abyssinia, Gadaa Bank and Wegagen Bank.

More are coming. In mid-September, ESX chief executive Yodit Kassa told Bloomberg that the exchange had granted in-principle approval to 11 new listings, with the first, a financial-services firm, set to start trading the following week. ECMA was reviewing about 66 prospectuses as of early 2026, more than 45 of them from financial services firms.

The exchange, launched in January 2025, has set a goal of 50 listed companies by 2030.