The Blood Bank service in Ethiopia was established in 1969 GC by Ethiopian Red Cross Society at Addis Ababa. The service was being given through its 12 regional blood banks covering the requirement of 52% the hospitals in the country. In April 2012 GC, The Federal Ministry of Health (MOH) made a policy decision to revert the responsibility for from the Ethiopia Red Cross Society (ERCS) to a Government-owned and managed service under the MOH and the Regional blood banks to Regional health bureaus through a transition strategy and plan developed and supported by WHO. This was in a bid to improve efficiency, place the Blood Bank Service (BBS) under the mainstream health care delivery system and effectively manage the 25 functional blood banks (one Central Blood Bank located in Addis Ababa and 24 in regions) at that time. Since then, additional 17 blood collection centers have been established, each of these have at least one mobile and one center blood collection teams. NBBS was established as independent autonomous federal government institution in 2014 by the Ministers of Council Regulation No.330/2014. Under this regulation, one of the mandates of the NBBS is to assure the availability of safe blood and blood products at the national level. (National Blood Bank Service Establishment Council of Ministers Regulation No.330/2014).

The goal of the NBBS is to improve the availability, safety and accessibility of adequate blood and blood products in timely manner to reduce mortality and morbidity in the country. The core objectives of the Transformation plan are:-

To be Center of Excellence Blood Service in Africa.

To Provide Safe, Adequate and Quality Assured blood products and related services Sustainably to all in need while promoting proper clinical use.