Revenue from the digital payments tax in Senegal amounted to 54.2 billion CFA francs at the end of March 2026, compared to an initial target of 94.8 billion CFA francs.
This levy of the digital tax in Senegal, intended to finance the Economic and Social Recovery Plan (PRES), displays an achievement rate of 57.2%, according to the latest quarterly budget execution report from the Ministry of Finance and Budget.
In this document, the ministry explains the shortfall by technical constraints.
It highlights in particular the difficulties linked to the operational implementation of the tax as well as the challenges of broadening the tax base, on a scope of taxpayers still being dentified.
The tax services also highlight the complexity of identifying and monitoring all dematerialized transactions affected by this tax.
The Ministry of Finance and Budget nevertheless mentions a “gradual ramp-up” of the system and is banking on an acceleration of collections from the second quarter of 2026, thanks to the consolidation of collection mechanisms.
Regional precedents and IMF analyses
Senegal is not the first country in the region to introduce such taxation. In 2022, Ghana implemented a tax on electronic transactions before repealing it in 2025, due to its low budgetary yield and its negative impact on the use of mobile money.
This experience is now widely documented. In a working document published in December 2025, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concludes that the taxation of mobile payments reduces their use and encourages some users to return to cash payments, a phenomenon which primarily affects the least banked populations, often lacking alternatives to mobile payment services.
The IMF therefore estimates that the economic cost of this type of tax can, in certain cases, exceed the budgetary revenue it generates.
ARD/te/Sf/fss/as/APA