Policy Research Working Papers 10182

Many African countries struggle to collect an adequate amount of tax revenue to support needed investments in public services. This paper examines how African countries may take advantage of recent advances in technology to improve tax administration. It provides an overview of the potential and challenges of different tax categories in Africa: consumption taxes, real estate taxes, trade taxes, and income taxes. It then describes the ways in which technology solutions may be deployed to address these challenges by helping to identify the tax base, monitor compliance, and facilitate compliance. Lastly, it provides insights from interviews with senior tax administrators across the continent on their practical experiences in adopting technology for taxation.

Authors

Fabrizio Santoro

Fabrizio is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, and the Research Lead for the second component of the ICTD's DIGITAX Research Programme. His main research interests relate to governance, public finance, and taxation, with a strong focus on impact evaluation methodologies and statistical analysis. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Sussex.

Oyebola Okunogbe

Oyebola Okunogbe is an Economist in the Human Development team of the World Bank Development Research Group. Her research interests are in governance and political economy, including policies on public finance, nation building, education, employment and gender.
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