Addis Abeba is moving to force its money through the wires. A draft directive from the city's Finance Bureau would require every municipal payment to be processed electronically, pulling half of the services still run by hand onto a digital platform.

The promise is a cleaner, faster treasury and less room for the leakage that audits keep turning up. The catch, an expert warns, is that the design routes it all through one bank and depends on capacity the city has not yet built.

The draft, prepared by the Finance Bureau under Abdulkadir Redwan, also deputy mayor, mandates that all city budget spending, from supplier payments and salaries to allowances, daily subsistence, transport and fuel, pass through digital channels, with bank transaction slips serving as official proof.

According to the Bureau’s officials, the shift is meant to lift budget efficiency and lighten the Administrative load of financial management.

Suppliers will have to submit signed payment request forms, proof of delivery, and fiscal receipts before any transfer. Approved payments will reach their bank accounts within five consecutive working days, with the applicable taxes, including VAT and withholding tax, deducted at source.

Salaries and allowances will be paid only through electronic systems, with bank confirmations serving as official proof of payment. Daily transport and fuel allowances will go straight to recipients' accounts. Petty cash and small-value purchases will run on government-issued purchase cards administered by the Bureau, issued in the name of the purchasing office, barred from cash withdrawals, and returned to the cashier with a zero balance after each use.

Control is built into the flow through a clearer segregation of duties and approval thresholds. A designated preparer will key payment details into the banking system, while a separate approver, working within set limits, authorises them. No one may both prepare and approve the same payment, with most transactions requiring dual electronic sign-off, purchase cards aside.

Office heads will appoint authorised staff, set payment limits, and file monthly reports with the Bureau, while finance officials will oversee daily banking, manage the cards, and reconcile accounts. They will be answerable for late payments unless a verified system or telecommunications failure is to blame.

ICT units are to keep the infrastructure in line with banking rules and maintain cybersecurity, including up-to-date antivirus software. Users are to protect their credentials and hardware tokens, and report any loss or unauthorised activity to the bank and senior management immediately.

For all the talk of digitisation, the draft designated the state-owned Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) as the sole banking channel for all city transactions.

The Finance Bureau Head told the City Council last week that the system will be expanded "aggressively" across all government institutions in the 2026/27 budget year to support a round-the-clock working culture.

The push follows a successful first phase of electronic government procurement (e-GP), which enters a second trial covering all city institutions next year. The Finance Bureau is working with the Innovation & Technology Bureau to build systems for budget transfers and cash flows designed to eliminate physical paperwork and manual follow-ups. The drive extends to the transport sector as well, where electronic systems for traffic-fine collection and public-transport deployment have already begun.

The Administration expects full digitisation to cut administrative bottlenecks and the risk of corruption by up to 90pc, though the Bureau provided no details on how the figure was reached.

That ambition is where an independent voice sounds, such as Bruke Gebreyes, cautioned.