Pardon my repeating what sounds like a cliche, but Africa is indeed a big place. I do not know of the situation on Ethiopia, but my first-hand knowledge (being

Pardon my repeating what sounds like a cliche, but Africa is indeed a big place. I do not know of the situation on Ethiopia, but my first-hand knowledge (being originally from Ghana and now living in the US) is that banks are generally just as reliable as in the West. It would have been shocking to lose money to bank employees without recourse. Of course a run on the bank is a different matter, but I never saw one in decades of living there.