Addis Ababa - In the often-overlooked expanses of Ethiopia’s eastern and northeastern frontiers, two regional states are quietly rewriting their fiscal stories.
The Somali and Afar regions have reported significant surges in domestic revenue collection for the 2017 budget year, revealing both ambition and resilience in historically under-resourced territories.
The Somali Regional State Revenue Bureau announced it collected 18.5 billion birr, surpassing its annual target by nearly a billion birr—a 105 percent achievement.
According to bureau head Mohamed Abdi Umer, this milestone owes much to the introduction of modern service delivery systems and a sustained effort to improve tax compliance across 95 districts and six city administrations.
In a promising sign of fiscal maturity, the region covered 44 percent of its expenditures from internal revenue, up from the previous year, with plans to reach 50 percent in the coming fiscal cycle.
Not to be outdone, Afar Region reported over 6 billion birr in revenue, exceeding its target by 546 million birr. The increase marks a 46 percent rise from the previous year, attributed to persistent efforts by local tax officials and improved administrative oversight.
Bureau head Awol Abdu revealed that over 1,000 tax offenders faced corrective measures, reinforcing a growing commitment to fiscal legality.
Both regions’ successes, though modest in national terms, signal a broader trend: emerging fiscal discipline on Ethiopia’s periphery.
While the road to full financial autonomy remains long, the recent gains demonstrate that with local leadership and a focus on systemic reform, even the most marginalised regions can inch closer to economic self-reliance, not as recipients, but as contributors to the national treasury.