Digital Trust Must Be Defended Around The Clock, CBE President Tells Cybersecurity Conference

Abie Sano, President of the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE), has called on the country’s financial sector to treat cybersecurity as a shared responsibility, warning that the public trust the bank has built over decades can be lost in a moment.

He was speaking at the official opening of CBE’s 3rd Cybersecurity Awareness Month Conference, held at the bank’s headquarters in Addis Ababa on 29–30 October and hosted in partnership with CIO Africa by dx5.

The President told delegates that the bank has spent years earning public confidence by staying consistent through market, political and economic changes, and by moving closer to customers through both its branch network and its digital services. That trust, he said, now has to be defended without a break.

A rapid shift to digital

He said 94 per cent of CBE customers’ financial transactions in the past week went through digital channels rather than physical branches, compared with 72 per cent four years ago. He described CBE as critical to Ethiopia’s national payment system, which raises the stakes of any disruption.

Digital customers, he noted, transact when no branch is open and no one is on hand to reassure them. They rely on trust that their information is protected and that the service will work when a family needs to pay for medicine or school fees, or a business is waiting to settle salaries.

“Cybersecurity is not only a function but also a leadership responsibility,” he said.

Security before convenience

The President outlined measures CBE has put in place to protect its systems and customers. These include round-the-clock monitoring, a contact centre staffed 24 hours a day so customers can report suspicious activity to a real person, and investment in modern detection tools ahead of any incident.

He said the bank requires secure testing of new services before launch, even when that delays a project, and applies customer verification for safety even at the expense of convenience, because it chooses trust above everything else.

He warned that attackers target the bank’s systems, employees and customers, using phishing, impersonation and fake voices to deceive people. He urged staff to think before they click and to verify before acting, and asked them to help educate customers so they are not fooled by fraudsters.

“Every employee is a line of defence,” he said.

A common problem, not a competition

The President said no single institution can secure the financial system alone. He called on banks, microfinance institutions, telecom providers, regulators, law enforcement, universities and technology partners to share threat intelligence quickly, rehearse incident response together and treat cyber defence as a common problem rather than an area of competition.

He closed by asking delegates to keep in mind the customers who have entrusted the financial system with their savings and their businesses, saying trust takes a long time to build and must be earned every day.