Women account for nearly one-third of the banking workforce in Ethiopia but remain significantly underrepresented in senior management, highlighting a persistent leadership gap even as banks make progress on women’s financial inclusion, according to the National Bank of Ethiopia’s second Women’s Financial Inclusion Scorecard.
Women made up 32.1 percent of the banking workforce during the 2025 reporting period, compared with the regulator’s 40 percent target. Their representation fell sharply at senior management level, where women held only 14.8 percent of positions against a target of 25 percent.
The gap also extends to career progression. Women accounted for 34 percent of promotions during the period, below the Scorecard’s 50 percent benchmark, indicating that their presence in the banking workforce has yet to translate proportionately into advancement into higher-ranking positions.
The findings come as the banking industry improves its overall performance on women’s financial inclusion. The average composite score across the 32 participating banks rose to 62.7 from 59.1 in the first reporting cycle. The median score also increased, although the bottom quartile remained largely unchanged.
Enat Bank retained its position as the sole Market Leader, while Tsedey Bank, Hibret Bank, Dashen Bank, Bunna Bank, Ahadu Bank, Shabelle Bank and Siket Bank were classified as Strong Performers.
The workforce and leadership findings, however, point to a different pace of progress inside financial institutions.
Only two banks moved into a higher performance category in the workforce dimension, while nine moved down. The National Bank said the decline partly reflected changes to the methodology, including the addition of two institutions and a revised definition of senior management that explicitly includes chief executives and managing directors.
Women’s representation at board level was comparatively stronger. Banks reported an average of about 2.3 women board members, while 71.9 percent of institutions said they had at least two women on their boards.
The contrast between board representation and executive management suggests that progress in formal governance positions has not been matched by a similar expansion of women’s presence in the executive pipeline.
The Scorecard also points to gaps in the workplace policies that could support women’s progression. Only 9.4 percent of banks reported having parental support policies, despite more than half reporting leadership development and mentorship programmes.
That leaves a significant difference between professional development initiatives and workplace support mechanisms, according to the findings.
The leadership gap forms part of a wider uneven pattern in the banking sector’s approach to women’s financial inclusion.
Financial innovation was the strongest-performing dimension, with the sector’s score rising to 72.74 from 56.2 in the first reporting round. Twenty-three banks reported innovative…
Read More: Women Fill One-Third of Banking Jobs, but Only 14.8% of Senior Roles
