Information Technology (IT) changes significantly the way we live, communicate and dornbusiness. As a result there are few companies that can afford the luxury of ignoring IT. Thisrnpervasive use of technology has created a critical dependency on IT that calls for a specific focusrnon IT Governance.rnThe aim of this study was to investigate maturity of IT Governance in the financial sector ofrnEthiopia. Mainly survey methodology was employed to investigate the perceived importance andrnmaturity of IT Governance practices in the financial sector of Ethiopia in terms of ITrnGovernance structure, processes and relational mechanism. Using simple random sampling, twornprivate banks (Dashen Bank and Zemen Bank) and two private insurance companies (NationalrnInsurance Company of Ethiopia and Nile Insurance) were selected randomly. Purposivernsampling was used to include Commercial Bank of Ethiopia and Ethiopian Insurance Companyrnsince one of the objectives of the research was comparing IT Governance maturity betweenrnprivate and public financial institutions. A total of 96 self administered questionnaires wererndistributed targeting senior business and IT leaders and return rate of 80% was achieved.rnRegarding data analysis, the quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS and the qualitative datarnwas presented based on predefined themes. Finally the survey result was complemented andrntriangulated with interview result and document review to answer the research questions.rnImportance of IT Governance in the financial sector of Ethiopia was rated 4.2 based on a scalernfrom 0(strongly disagree) to 5(strongly agree). This shows that there is a strong consensusrnbetween business and IT leaders on the Importance of IT Governance practices. In spite of thisrnkeenness, the actual IT Governance maturity was rated 1.2 (level 1) based on generic maturityrnscale from 0(non-existence) to 5(optimized) i.e. IT Governance issues were recognized butrnpracticed in an informal and ad hoc basis with little or no evidence of standardization.rnThe survey result also shows that, relatively privately owned financial institutions (1.3) reachedrnbetter level of IT Governance maturity than that of publicly owned (0.94) likewise though ITrnGovernance maturity was rated at initial stage (level 1) in the financial sector of Ethiopia, thernbanking sector (1.4) reached better level of maturity than the insurance sector (0.7) based onrngeneric maturity scale from 0(non-existence) to 5(optimized)rnrnRegarding IT decision making right, IT leaders in the banking sector play superior role than theirrnpeers in the insurance sector. The prevalent IT Governance archetype (locus of IT decisionrnmaking authority) in the banking sector was a combination of IT Monopoly (IT executives hasrnexclusive decision making right on IT Architecture and Infrastructure) and IT Duopoly (ITrnleaders shares decision making right with business executives on IT principle, businessrnapplication needs and IT investment and prioritization) whereas it was Business Monarch in therninsurance sector i.e. IT leaders have only input rights and the decision right was exclusively heldrnby business executives. Furthermore, among IT Governance mechanisms, relatively ITrnGovernance structure was rated as more important as well as mature than that of IT GovernancernProcesses and Relational mechanism.rnOn the basis of the above results, it can be concluded that, IT Governance maturity is at initialrnstage (level 1) in the financial sector of Ethiopia. So, to reach desired level of IT Governancernmaturity and to get the best out of IT investment, financial institutions have to start implementingrnformal IT Governance which fits to their business strategy and culture by mixing-and-matchingrnelements of existing frameworks.