Ethiopia’s biggest commercial bank is scrambling to recoup large sums of money withdrawn by customers after a “systems glitch”. The customers discovered early on Saturday that they could take out more cash than they had in their accounts at the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE). More than $40m (£31m) was withdrawn or transferred to other banks, local media reported. It took several hours for the institution to freeze transactions.
Much of the money was withdrawn from state-owned CBE by students, bank president Abe Sano told journalists yesterday. News of the glitch spread across universities largely via messaging apps and phone calls, reports the BBC. Long lines formed at campus ATMs, with a student in western Ethiopia telling BBC Amharic people were withdrawing money until police officers arrived on campus to stop them.
