Inside e-KORI, Burundi’s new digital registration system 🇧🇮📑

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Long lines at Burundi’s tax office are becoming a thing of the past. Since August 4, 2026, every registration request — administrative or commercial — has to go through e-KORI, a new online platform. The Burundi Revenue Authority (OBR) is presenting the shift as a reform meant to simplify procedures, cut processing times, and improve transparency for taxpayers.

Digitizing registration 💻

Administrative and commercial registration requests are now fully digital, covering three categories: individuals, legal entities, and cooperatives.

For an administrative registration, the process runs through several steps. Applicants file their request on e-KORI. Individuals then receive an appointment by email to visit an OBR office and have their biometric data — fingerprints and a photo — recorded. OBR staff review the file, and if the request is approved, the registration certificate is sent by email. If it’s rejected, an email spells out the reasons so the applicant can fix the issue.

How does commercial registration work? 🏢

Individuals and legal entities seeking commercial registration also have to file online. Depending on their profile, the platform first redirects them to easybusiness.bi, the portal run by the Burundi Development Agency (ADB), to kick off the process. That information is then automatically forwarded to the OBR via e-KORI.

As with administrative registration, individuals are called in for a biometric appointment before their file is processed. After verification, the OBR issues the registration certificate by email — or notifies the applicant of a rejection, along with the reasons.

A different path for cooperatives 🫱🏾‍🫲🏾

Cooperatives follow a separate track. The request starts at the National Agency for the Promotion and Regulation of Cooperative Societies (ANACOOP). Once the required documents are gathered, the applicant moves to e-KORI to enter the information and paperwork provided by ANACOOP. The OBR then verifies and validates the data before sending the registration certificate by email.

There’s a catch: the cooperative’s representative must already hold their own administrative registration as an individual, and every member of the cooperative has to be individually registered before the cooperative can even apply for commercial registration. The manager also needs a valid Tax Identification Number (NIF) before starting the process.

Transitional rules for pending files 🔄

The OBR notes that taxpayers who filed a request through ADB, or a physical file, before August 4, 2026, aren’t affected by the new procedure. Those files will keep moving through the old process until they’re resolved. The tax authority is asking affected taxpayers to take note of these arrangements and says it remains available to support them through the transition.

According to the OBR, this reform is part of a broader push to modernize public services: simpler procedures, shorter processing times, and more transparency in the relationship between the tax authority and taxpayers.

So — does digitizing government paperwork actually save you time and improve public services where you live?