By Groum Abate

Capital

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) suspends 20 of its employees in connection with the recent gold fraud scandal.

Sources told Capital that the bank is also expected to charge the suspended employees with fraud, which cost the bank over 160 million birr.
According to reports, the bank exported ‘gold’ bricks to South Africa where experts there identified the so called gold bricks as fake and returned them to the bank.
Recently five senior executives from NBE and three chemists from the Ethiopian Geological Survey were arrested for their alleged involvement in the gold fraud scandal.
The NBE, which exports gold, reportedly has bought 300 kilograms of the fake ‘gold’ from an unnamed trader. The Ethiopian Geological Survey inspects any gold the NBE buys and offers quality assurance.

Over 7.8 million dollars were obtained from the export of gold by producers and exporters during the first quarter of the last budget year.
The stated sum was obtained from the export of over 433 kg of gold.
In addition, about 53,610 USD was obtained from the export of 171.8 kg of various jewels during the reported period.

Ethiopia, which is believed to have large reserves of gold, is benefiting from a surge in global demand for the precious metal.