Commercial Bank of Ethiopia Headquarters

Commercial Bank of Ethiopia Headquarters
The CBE Building in 2024
General information
Status	Completed
Town or city	Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Coordinates	9°01′00″N38°45′16″E / 9.0165513°N 38.7543284°E / 9.0165513; 38.7543284
Groundbreaking	October 2015
Topped-out	November 11, 2018
Completed	February 13, 2022;3 years ago (February 13, 2022)
Cost	ETB 5.3 billion (US$303 million)
Owner	Commercial Bank of Ethiopia
Height	209 m
Technical details
Floor count	53
Floor area	150,000 sq m
Design and construction
Architecture firm	Henn GmbH
Main contractor	China State Construction Engineering Corporation

The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia Headquarters is a skyscraper in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, that was completed on February 13, 2022, and became the tallest building in Ethiopia. It serves as the headquarters of the state-owned Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, the country's largest bank. It is also the tallest building in all of East Africa, and the tallest in Sub-Saharan Africa outside of South Africa. ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}

History

Construction commenced in 2015 under a 5,300,000,000 Ethiopian birr deal with the China State Construction Engineering Corporation. ^{[3] [5]} The foundation stone was laid on June 27, 2015. ^[5] The building was then topped out in the second half of 2019. ^[6] Cladding work however has been delayed due to the foreign currency shortage in Ethiopia ^[6] that made it harder for local businesses to fund imports, thus, affected the bank's financial ^[7] as it still controlled most of the country's banking activities in 2020. ^[8]

The building was originally scheduled to be completed on January 19, 2019. ^[5] As of August 2018, construction of the building is scheduled to be completed in 2020. ^[2]

In February 2022, the building was officially inaugurated to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia. ^[9]

Site

The building site is an 18,000-meter plot on Ras Desta Damtew Road in Addis Ababa. ^[5]

The CBE headquarters skyscraper (tallest building) visible in the top-right corner of the city's skyline.

Design

The building is 209.3 meters tall with 53 stories, two 5-story podiums, and 20-meter-deep underground parking lots. ^{[1] [5]} The building design includes 49 above-ground floors, a mezzanine level, a ground floor, and 4 basement floors. ^[5] The building has a total floor area of 150,000 square meters. ^[1]

Its design includes eight conference halls, emergency disaster waiting room, two restaurants on the top floors, and a sightseeing tower. ^[5]

It is the tallest building in Ethiopia and East Africa. ^{[3] [5]}

See also

• List of tallest buildings in Africa

References

1. Barnes, Robert (6 May 2015). "Ethiopia: CSCEC to build a new headquarters for CBE". Construction Review Online. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
2. Marsh, Jenni (August 2018). "Employed by China". CNN. The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia will be the tallest building in Ethiopia when completed by China State Construction Engineering Corporation in 2020.
3. Tegegne, Elias (9 November 2019). "City Administration to Allocate Land to Banks Without Bid". Addis Fortune . Retrieved 2 October 2020.
4. "Ethiopia's tallest buildings - Top 20". Archived from the original on May 11, 2015.
5. Kassa, Lucy (29 June 2015). "CBE Lays Cornerstone of Impressive New Headquarters". Addis Fortune . Retrieved 2 October 2020.
6. Nkirote, Miriam (1 January 2021). "CBE Tower: Inside Ethiopia's tallest building in Addis Ababa". Construction Kenya. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
7. Yewondwossen, Muluken (2 April 2018). "Hard Times for Hard Currency". Capital . Retrieved 25 January 2021.
8. Schipani, Andres (3 November 2020). "Ethiopia takes small steps towards bank liberalisation". Financial Times . Retrieved 25 January 2021.
9. Account (2022-02-13). "Ethiopia's tallest building Commercial Bank skyscraper inaugurated". Borkena Ethiopian News. Retrieved 2022-10-01.