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]
| Commercial Bank of Ethiopia Headquarters | |
|---|---|
 The CBE Building to the left | |
 | |
| General information | |
| Status | Completed |
| Town or city | Addis Ababa, Ethiopia |
| Coordinates | 9°01′00″N 38°45′16″E / 9.0165513°N 38.7543284°E |
| Groundbreaking | October 2015 |
| Topped-out | 11 November 2018 |
| Completed | 13 February 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 |
History edit
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]
Site edit
The building site is an 18,000 meter plot on Ras Desta Damtew Road in Addis Ababa.[5]
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Design edit
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]
See also edit
References edit
- ^ a b c Barnes, Robert (6 May 2015). "Ethiopia: CSCEC to build a new headquarters for CBE". Construction Review Online. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
- ^ a b 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.
- ^ a b c Tegegne, Elias (9 November 2019). "City Administration to Allocate Land to Banks Without Bid". Addis Fortune. Retrieved 2 October 2020.
- ^ "Ethiopia's tallest buildings - Top 20". Archived from the original on May 11, 2015.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Kassa, Lucy (29 June 2015). "CBE Lays Cornerstone of Impressive New Headquarters". Addis Fortune. Retrieved 2 October 2020.
- ^ a b Nkirote, Miriam (1 January 2021). "CBE Tower: Inside Ethiopia's tallest building in Addis Ababa". Construction Kenya. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
- ^ Yewondwossen, Muluken (2 April 2018). "Hard Times for Hard Currency". Capital. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
- ^ Schipani, Andres (3 November 2020). "Ethiopia takes small steps towards bank liberalisation". Financial Times. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
- ^ Account (2022-02-13). "Ethiopia's tallest building Commercial Bank skyscraper inaugurated". Borkena Ethiopian News. Retrieved 2022-10-01.