Tue, 09/01/2015 - 14:46
The varied and complex taxation systems across Africa have made it difficult to compare how much revenue different governments receive from taxes. Based on recent IMF data, the Mail & Guardian Africa looked at one available indicator: tax revenue as a percentage of GDP. The findings confirm that Africa’s situation still “doesn’t fit into convenient boxes”!
Lesotho was the country with highest tax revenues, more than half of GDP: 50.7%. Most other countries at the top of the list are the more developed economies, suggesting more efficiency in collection: Namibia, Seychelles, Botswana, South Africa, Morocco and Mauritius.
A shocking, but not entirely surprising, result was tax revenue in Africa’s largest economy, Nigeria: just 8.5% of its GDP. In another oil economy, Equatorial Guinea, taxes are just 11.9% of GDP. By contrast, in another similarly oil-dependent country, Angola, taxes amount to 38.4% of GDP: the second-highest value on the continent.
Curious to know what is the situation in other African countries? You can read the complete article here
For the raw data, see IMF World Revenue Longitudinal Data (WoRLD) here
