Addis Abeba Folds Its Traffic Management Authority

Addis Abeba's city council has amended the proclamation that defines the powers and duties of its executive bodies, and among the changes is the folding of the Traffic Management Authority — a body that was itself upgraded from a service-providing agency to an authority only a few years ago. Tikvah Ethiopia reported the decision on Friday afternoon.

An institution that went up and is now coming down

The authority's short history is the point. It was created as an agency to deliver a service, promoted to an authority with regulatory standing, and has now been absorbed back into the city's executive structure in a single council sitting. For anyone who deals with the city on road permits, junction works, signal timing or commercial-vehicle routing, the question is not whether traffic management continues — it will — but which desk now signs.

That is the part nobody can answer today. A senior official at the authority told Tikvah he has not yet received the detailed instructions for carrying out the decision. A restructuring announced before its implementing instructions exist is a period in which files sit still, and businesses with works permits in train are the ones who notice first.

The headcount

Tikvah reports the authority employs more than 1,200 people. Where those posts land — reassigned into the city administration, redeployed to other bureaus, or cut — has not been stated.

Open

The city has not published which body inherits the authority's regulatory functions, what happens to permits and approvals already issued under its name, or a timetable for the transfer. Nor has it said whether the 1,200 posts are preserved. Fact.et has not been able to verify the headcount against an official city document; it is reported by Tikvah Ethiopia, whose original post is in Amharic.

Sources: Tikvah Ethiopia, 2 October 2026