The remark was made at Marrakesh, Morocco on Thursday by ECA Executive Secretary vera Songwe.
In her opening remarks, Songwe said a typical economy on the continent collects just about 16 percent of GDP in taxes, with the exception of countries like Morocco, that collect at least 25 percent.
South Africa and Rwanda are some of the countries that leverage new technologies to expand revenue collection, she added
According to her, the potential of Africa is promising with a growing working-age population, abundant arable land and a multitude of other resources as well as all the pre-requisites for rapid economic transformation in the next decade.
“However,” Songwe stated that “ensuring the availability of adequate public resources and quality investments to drive structural change requires responsive policies that promote fiscal sustainability, optimize returns from economic activity, and enable economies to fully participate in an increasingly interconnected and globalized world.”
The executive secretary said Africans can do that by ensuring that “we have good fiscal policy.”
“Africa could boost revenues by 3 percent of GDP by addressing its capacity tax constraints. In addition, by better aligning tax rates and revenues with business cycles, countries can boost government revenue by 5 percent,” Songwe noted.
“We are going through a new age where we will become vulnerable to our data if we do not know how to manage it and manage it well. We will have to make sure that we have the right institutions to protect individuals and sovereign states as we move forward,” she added.