Cooperative Bank of Oromia is commercially licensed in October 2004 and commenced operations in March 2005. The bank’s formation was realized with majority of shareholders being the cooperative societies. Reluctance and low capacity of the formal financial institutions in the country to serve rural community, a demand-supply gap prevailed in financial market especially in rural areas, coupled with farmers’ awareness to be organized into cooperatives and the increasing need to finance cooperatives called for establishment of a cooperative bank. Furthermore, finance appeared to be the critical bottleneck to sustain the cooperative institutions and ultimately the farmers. It was all these glitches that initiated the inception and establishment of Cooperative Bank of Oromia. The Bank has broad ownership base and diversified ownership structure. It comprises Cooperatives and Non-Cooperative members. Cooperative member includes Primary Cooperatives, Cooperative Unions and Cooperatives Federation whereas, non-Cooperative members includes Organizations, Associations and individuals.
