Ethiopia Pilots One-Stop Digital Platform for Paperless Company Registration

Ethiopia’s Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration (MoTRI) unveiled the Integrated Company Creation Journey (ICCJ), a one-stop platform designed to digitize company registration. After a year in development, the system has been piloted and is set to begin operations in the coming weeks.

Developed by Custor Computing PLC, the local firm behind the government’s e-trade system, ICCJ is the centerpiece of the Business Environment and Investment Climate (BEIC) project, a four-year European Union €7.2 million initiative that concluded earlier this year. It connects the National ID program, the Ministry of Revenue, the Document Authentication and Registration Service (DARS), and banks into a single digital process.

During the launch ceremony held at Skylight Hotel on Monday, Abdulhakim Mulu (PhD), State Minister at MoTRI, framed the project as potentially transformational.

 “The ICCJ was developed with three pillars in mind: regulatory framework, public services, and operational efficiency,” he said. “Previously, obtaining a license could take 32 days and involve 11 procedures. With this system, the process has been reduced to as little as two days and will eventually move to a single step.”

The state minister cautioned that full implementation will take time, noting that at least a year of dedicated support is needed to ensure the platform scales effectively and delivers services smoothly. Tools like the ICCJ could mark a turning point for Ethiopia’s e-governance, which so far has done little to improve the ease of doing business. In a United Nations e-government development report released last year, the country ranked in the bottom 25 out of 193 nations

Ellie Sewaye, an e-government expert at BEIC, explained that the effort was not just to digitize but to re-engineer how registration works by eliminating the need for physical visits to government offices. The system folds in the issuance of articles of association, taxpayer identification numbers, and competency certificates, and supports digital payments, according to the expert.

“It will hopefully begin operating in the coming few weeks,” Elie told Shega.

Participants during the launch pointed out that patchy connectivity and gaps in capacity could slow adoption. To ease the transition, MoTRI plans to establish service centers where businesses can access the platform with support.

On the user side, the process begins when an applicant logs into the portal with a 16-digit National ID, verified by a one-time password. Demographic details, company names in English, Amharic, and other local languages, and shareholder information are all verified against national ID and tax records. Business details, including address and sector, are submitted alongside supporting documents such as rental agreements. The platform automatically links to the Ministry of Revenue to assign a tax authority and integrates with the national payments gateway, ETHswitch, for fees. 

Administratively, MoTRI officers validate company names, shareholder details, and uploaded documents. DARS authenticates articles of association, the Revenues Ministry issues a Tax Identification Number (TIN), and MoTRI delivers a commercial license. Applicants should be able to receive SMS notifications and download official certificates in a short while.

For years, Ethiopia’s registration system has been defined by its inefficiency. Entrepreneurs have often waited weeks, sometimes months, caught in a maze of paper, offices, and approvals. By reducing that to days, officials hope ICCJ can not only improve transparency but also signal to investors that the government is serious about creating a friendlier business environment.

The proof will lie in execution. Ethiopia has launched digital portals before, only to see them stumble against the reality of limited internet access, poor maintenance procedures, and uneven institutional coordination.