NBE floated an international tender in May this year inviting currency printers to produce over 1.1bn Ethiopian birr (Br) (£57m) in all denominations. Applicants included FCOF, which won the Ethiopian Birr contract three years ago.
FCOF had fallen under investigation from Kenya's Anticorruption Commission after it was implicated in a corruption scandal relating to Kenya's contract for printing electronically readable passports in the final years of Daniel arap Moi's regime.
Nonetheless, FCOF saw out the contract and delivered all the notes it was required to.
However, the current bid committee of eight, chaired by Alemayehu Kebede, the bank's modernisation and external relations director, awarded the printing of 10, 50, and 100 denominations to Gieseck & Deverient. The remaining denominations of one and five Br were awarded to Basingstoke-based De La Rue.
There is now close to 10bn Br worth of notes in circulation, while the banking system is believed to keep 56bn Br worth of notes in saving and time deposit accounts, according to sources at NBE.
Gary Williams, head of communications at De La Rue declined to give any further information on the deal when contacted by PrintWeek.
The news comes after Giesecke & Devrient pulled out of its contract to print Zimbawean dollars following global criticism surrounding rising inflation under Robert Mugabe's regime.
It is now understood that the country may be facing a shortage of paper to print money on.
De La Rue selected as a printer for Ethiopian bank note contract
De La Rue has joined German Gieseck and Deverient in a multi-million pound deal to print bank notes for the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) after Francois-Charles Oberthur Fiduciarie (FCOF), the controversial French company, lost its contract.
