Adanech Abebe Returns as Mayor and Hands the Industry Bureau to Girma Seifu

The Addis Ababa City Council reappointed Adanech Abebe as mayor on 30 September, at the opening session forming the city government for its fourth round, and went on to approve the cabinet she put before it.

For anyone with a file open in the capital, the cabinet list matters more than the mayoralty.

Who now holds which bureau

Girma Seifu takes the Industrial Development Bureau. Samuel Molalign, until now mayor of Dessie, becomes deputy mayor and head of the Plan and Development Bureau. Tilahun Kebede, previously at the head of the South Ethiopia region, takes the Public Service and Human Resource Development Bureau at deputy-mayor rank. Million Matewos takes Jobs and Skills, also at deputy-mayor rank.

Fana Television reported that the council approved four appointments carrying deputy-mayor rank.

These are the desks that decide, in practice, how long an industrial licence takes, whether a lease file moves, and which workforce programmes get funded. A change of bureau chief resets the relationships around each of them.

A capital-wide reshuffle, not a routine renewal

Adanech's return follows five years in which the city administration ran one of the most aggressive urban redevelopment programmes in the country's history — corridor projects, large infrastructure spending and rising municipal revenue, alongside sustained criticism over demolitions and displacement. Birr Metrics noted that record in reporting the reappointment.

Two of the incoming bureau heads arrive from outside the city administration, from Dessie and from the South Ethiopia region. That is a deliberate import of officials rather than promotion from within, and it usually signals that the second term is meant to be run differently from the first.

Open

The full cabinet list has not been published in one place, and the council has not said which bureaus are unchanged. Neither the mayor's office nor the incoming bureau heads have set out priorities for the term. Names and titles here are taken from the Amharic originals; where the two channels differ in transliteration, the Amharic spelling has been followed.

Sources: Tikvah Ethiopia, 30 September 2026, Tikvah Ethiopia, 30 September 2026, Fana Television, 30 September 2026, Birr Metrics, 30 September 2026