Caffee Oromia Collapses 21 Zones Into Six and Gives Them Legal Standing

The Oromia Regional Council has approved a proclamation that reorganises the region from 21 zones into six, grouped by direction, and — according to the account given at the session — gives zones a legal framework and decision-making authority for the first time.

The proclamation passed unanimously at the council's sitting, described in the state broadcaster's account as the first regular meeting of the first year of its seventh term. It is framed as a law determining the organisation, powers and functions of the executive bodies of the region's zones, districts and kebeles.

Six administrations where there were twenty-one

Oromia is Ethiopia's largest region by population and by land area, and its zonal administrations are the layer where most things a business actually needs are decided: land allocation, investment permits at sub-regional level, local tax administration, licensing, and the approvals that sit between a federal incentive and a functioning site.

Consolidating 21 of those into six is a large change to that layer. The stated intent runs in two directions at once — fewer administrative units, but each with more formal authority than zones held before. Regional officials have presented it as strengthening coordination and pushing power downward rather than pulling it up.

For firms with operations across Oromia, the practical questions are mundane and immediate. Which office now holds a file that was opened with a zone that no longer exists as a unit. Whether permits, leases and registrations issued by the outgoing zones carry over automatically or need re-endorsement. Who the counterpart is for a project already mid-approval. Restructurings of this size usually produce a transitional period in which nobody is quite sure, and that period is a cost.

Open

The proclamation's transitional provisions have not been published in detail. It is not clear when the six new zones become operative, what happens to staff and records held by the 21 outgoing administrations, whether existing licences and land certificates transfer without action by the holder, or how the boundaries of the six directional zones are drawn. Nor has the region said what the change is expected to cost, or save.

Sources: Tikvah Ethiopia, 28 September 2026, Fana Television, 28 September 2026