The Ethiopian government has secured a 70-million-dollar concessional loan from the World Bank to support its efforts to modernize public administration and improve financial management. The loan will be used to implement the Governance Modernization to Enable Efficient Service Delivery Project, which aims to enhance the government's capacity to mobilize and manage its financial and human resources. The project will focus on three key areas: strengthening public administration through data-driven HR practices and competency-based recruitment, improving domestic revenue mobilization through enhanced taxpayer services and technology, and advancing public financial management by scaling up digital solutions and addressing process deficiencies. The agreement was signed virtually by Ethiopian Finance Minister Ahmed Shide and Maryam Salim, the World Bank's new Country Director for Ethiopia. The agreement comes on the heels of an IMF delegation’s recent visit to Addis Abeba which praised the Ethiopian authorities for their efforts and recommended the disbursement of a separate 345 million dollars in financing, upon the Executive Board’s approval.