Finance Minister Matia Kasaija has said Africa’s tax regimes should attract foreign direct investments (FDIs) and maximize domestic revenue mobilization.

Minister Kasaija made the remarks today at Lake Victoria Serena Hotel Kigo, as he opened a two-day inaugural high level tax dialogue hosted by the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) under the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF).

The dialogue is being held under the theme, ‘Forging the nexus between tax policy and tax administration in Africa’, and in that respect the Minister said dependence on foreign aid was not sustainable. “There is no free aid,” he said.”

Addressing the over 500 participants, the ATAF Executive Secretary, Logan Wort,  said it was high time Africa sought for new ways raising domestic resources to fund its own projects.

“In Africa we must work to fund our own agendas. That is our challenge,” he said this morning in Kampala.

Wort urged African finance policy makers and administrators to minimize tax leakages, saying it hampers revenue mobilization. “When ministers, legislators. Judiciary and revenue authorities work together, water -tight tax systems cannot be broken through,” he said.

The Commissioner General of the Swaziland Revenue Authority Dumisani Masilela also said that time had come for Africa to develop local sources of revenue to fund its development agenda. “Africa must grow endogenous investors to reduce reliance on external funding,” she said.

In picture is the Agenda 2063 which aims to optimise the use of Africa’s resources for the benefit of the continent’s people but this, according to tax administrators and government needs huge funds to address the issues it espouses such education and infrastructure development.

Dr Opoku-Mensah of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) urged governments to utilize the domestically generated revenues efficiently. “Mobilising revenue for development in government coffers is one thing, how it is used is another,” he said.

Experts say that Africa’s current income will not lead the continent to Agenda 2063, adopted in 2015 and as such new innovative income sources are required.

At the meeting, among others, participants will discuss ways of mitigating tax evasion driven by the technology. There is also concern that multi-national companies bully some countries and end up not paying taxes.

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The Mokash Mobile Money platform launched by MTN Uganda and Commercial Bank of Africa Uganda (CBA) a year ago to give clients loans, has hit the Shs30 billion mark.

In a press release issued today MTN, Uganda’s largest telecom by sales and subscriber base, says that since the launch of MoKash platform on the MTN Mobile Money, 2.5 million customers have joined the service, with 1.2 million of these actively saving on MoKash while over one million loans have been issued.

“At MTN, our mission is to make customer’s lives a whole lot brighter and we introduced MoKash to give customers more services to enable them achieve their goals,” Elsa Muzzolini, the General Manager of Mobile Financial Services at MTN Uganda, wrote.

“The additional feature of being able to borrow and save (Mokash) means that the unbanked can be served with financial services that have previously been a privilege of traditional bank account holders,” Muzzolini adds.

According to Muzzolini, MTN Uganda has over 9 million registered subscribers on its Mobile Money platform, which represents 80 percent of the network’s total subscriber base.

He says subscribers can save as low as Shs50 and earn interest of 2 percent to 5 percent and borrow short term loans ranging between Shs3000 to Shs1, 000,000 on their phones without visiting an agent or bank.

A loan request attracts a 9 percent facilitation fee and is valid for 30 days. MoKash is accessible 24 hours a day from anywhere and at any time, and as of June 30 2017, MTN Uganda recorded 11.5 million subscribers across Uganda.

According to the Finscope III survey, MTN Mobile Money was the largest contributor to the nonbank financial services in Uganda.

The introduction of additional services on the Mobile Money platforms has transcended the basic sending and receiving functionality to more advanced services like payments, international remittances and saving and borrowing via the phone, boosting the financial inclusion drive in the country.

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The Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) is hosting a two-day inaugural high level tax dialogue under the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) at Serena Hotel, Kigo.

According to the URA Commissioner General, Doris Akol, the event under the theme ‘Forging the nexus between tax policy and tax administration in Africa’ has attracted officials of revenue authorities from over 30 African countries, particularly bringing in the East African regional tax bodies like the Kenya Revenue Authority, Tanzania Revenue Authority and the Rwanda Revenue Authority.

The dialogue, expected to be opened by Uganda’s Finance Minister Matia Kasaija, has also attracted tax experts, public finance experts and government representatives.

“Better tax administration will enhance economic growth, increase accountability of the state to its citizens, and more effectively mobilise domestic resources,” they say.

According to ATAF Executive Secretary Logan Wort, gaps and lack of synergies between tax policy, administration and customs in Africa create tax leakages, making it impossible for tax authorities to achieve their revenue collection targets.

For instance, available records indicate that in the financial year 2016/17 URA made a revenue shortfall of Shs457.51 billion, partly attributed to tax leakages, collecting 96.53 percent of the Shs13.18 trillion it had targeted to raise in tax collections. Kenya and Tanzania revenue collections could only reach 95.30 percent and 94.68 percent target, respectively, while Rwanda achieved 100.50 percent of taxes it had planned to collect.

The tax bodies say they face the challenge of non-compliance in cash economy due to structural, cultural, legislatives and administrative reasons with the call for technologic advancement to address some of them.

The ATAF event will also feature the first official launch of the second African Tax Outlook 2017.The update provides learning lessons from the past implementation to improving going forward.

The conference comes at the time when tax administrations in Africa are being urged to systematically broaden their tax base so as to fund a big percentage of national budgets as donors cut their aid to Africa.

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Ugandan and other East African Community (EAC) bloc industrialists have been urged to embrace e-commerce platforms to boost their market reach and beat off competition by manufacturers from other regional blocs.

The experts say embracing such innovations will help reduce the cost of production and enhance the sector profitability.

According to Dr Mukhisa Kituyi, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Secretary-General, e-commerce is a vital and innovative tool for promoting industrialisation and trade across the EAC region.

Dr. Kituyi made the remarks recently during the EAC Manufacturing Business Summit and Exhibition in Kigali Rwanda. The three-day summit brought together more than 500 participants such as business leaders, experts and policy-makers, to discuss mechanisms to bolster regional industrialisation.

The UNCTAD boss said manufacturers should take advantage of the immense opportunities presented by e-commerce platforms to enter new markets, create awareness about their products and drive sales to improve profits.

He observed that the economy today is being driven by digitisation, which makes it imperative for regional manufacturers to embrace e-commerce and tap into the untapped markets. This way the sector will be able to create more jobs and foster inclusive economic growth, he added.

Matthias Wachter, the in charge of the Federation of German Industries department of security and raw materials, also urged manufacturers to use technology and e-commerce in the processes to increase production and tap new customers, adding that will help them penetrate markets and sell products at competitive prices.

Reducing cost of production

Meanwhile, the business community has called on regional governments to invest more resources in areas that will further improve the business environment for manufacturers and other players in the regional economy.

Manufacturers across the region have been complaining of high electricity and water charges, and poor infrastructure, which they say were eating into their profits and making the sector less competitive.

Lilian Awinja, the East African Business Council chief executive, said though the EAC region has been registering significant economic growth averaging 6 per cent over the past few years, the performance of the manufacturing sector is discouraging.

“The EAC manufacturing sector has been registering modest growth of 4.7 per cent and its contribution to the regional GDP has continued to shrink to less than 10 per cent,” she noted.

Buy-East Africa Build East Africa drive

The industrialists urged regional governments to prioritise EAC companies in public and private procurement, arguing that this will create necessary demand for locally-manufactured products.

It could also help support technology-based start-ups and boost the firms’ financial capacity.

Many of the participants advocated for the Buy-East Africa, Build-East Africa campaign to strengthen the local content initiative.

They said this would ensure EAC industries thrive, creating more jobs as well as help increase households incomes and reduce poverty.

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