The financial journey of Addis Ababa city administration in the past years, from increasing income to development-oriented budget transition. The financial data of Addis Ababa city administration from 2010 to 2019 fiscal year clearly shows that the city is undergoing economic growth and structural transition that it has never seen in its history. This 10-year journey has not only built a strong revenue collection capacity, but also implemented a sound financial policy of reducing administrative costs and investing in capital for sustainable development. The revenue collection performance, which was only 30 billion birr in 2010, has grown by 1574.23 percent (by 472.27 billion birr) and has reached a level where it can cover the entire budget in 2019. This balance of income growth and general budget growth indicates that the city has confirmed its financial sovereignty and its ability to implement projects internally. Apart from the numerical growth, the change in the composition of the budget allocation (Capital vs. Regular Budget) highlights the development vision of the city. The share of the capital budget in 2010 was 53.18 percent (21.53 billion birr), and 46.82 percent (18.96 billion birr) was used for regular or operational purposes. But in 2019, this proportion showed a fundamental change, while the share of the capital budget increased to 71 percent (355.52 billion birr), while the share of the regular budget decreased to 29 percent (146.74 billion birr). Reducing administrative costs (regular budget) and spending most of the money on infrastructure and big projects (capital budget) is a policy success that confirms that the city has completely turned its face to proper development that is seen in growth and prosperity. In general, these data clearly show that the Addis Ababa city administration is not only expanding its wealth collection capacity, but also saving the collected resources properly and giving priority to capital projects that will change the lives of the residents and modernize the city.