The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia Headquarters is a skyscraper in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia that was completed on 13 February 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 also is the tallest building in all of East Africa.[1][2][3][4]
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 27 June 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 19 January 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]
The building site is an 18,000 meter plot on Ras Desta Damtew Road in Addis Ababa.[5]
The building is 209 meters tall with 46 stories, two 5-story podiums, and 20-metre deep underground parking lots.[1][5] The building design includes 46 above-ground floors, a mezzanine level, a ground floor, and 4 basement levels.[5] The building have 150,000 square meters of floor area.[1]
Its design includes eight conference halls, an emergency waiting room for disasters, two restaurants on the top two floors, and a sightseeing tower.[5]
It is the tallest building in Ethiopia and East Africa.[3][5]
The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia will be the tallest building in Ethiopia when completed by China State Construction Engineering Corporation in 2020.