DIGITAX Research Programme

Programme

DIGITAX Research Programme

The DIGITAX programme generated knowledge and evidence as well as delivered advice and support to governments and other stakeholders on overcoming challenges and leveraging opportunities at the interface of digital financial services (DFS), digital IDs, and tax.

Our robust, relevant, and cutting-edge research looked at:
• the taxation of mobile money and other DFS, and;
• the digitalisation of tax systems across lower-income countries, with a particular focus on Africa.

DIGITAX, which ran from 2020 to 2024, was funded by the Gates Foundation.

DIGITAX Research Programme

Key Resources

DIGITAX Research Programme Library

Research in Brief

Electronic Services and Tax Compliance: Evidence from Medium and Small Businesses in Burkina Faso

October 2024
Jule Kaini Tinta, Mouhamed Zerbo, Fabrizio Santoro, Awa Diouf, Kèrabouro Pale

Working Paper

Electronic Services and Tax Compliance: Evidence from Medium and Small Businesses in Burkina Faso

October 2024
Jule Kaini Tinta, Mouhamed Zerbo, Fabrizio Santoro, Awa Diouf, Kèrabouro Pale

Policy Brief

The Tanzanian Model for Taxing Mobile Money: Scrap it, Reform it, or Let it Be?

September 2024
Christopher Wales, Hannelore Niesten

Policy Brief

Exploring the Development of Mobile Money Markets and Revenue Collection from Digital Financial Services Taxes in Africa

August 2024
Hannelore Niesten, Christopher Wales

Policy Brief

Crafting a Model for Taxing Digital Financial Services

August 2024
Christopher Wales, Hannelore Niesten

Policy Brief

Taxing Mobile Money in Africa: Risk and Reward

July 2024
Martin Hearson, Philip Mader, Mary Abounabhan, Marco Carreras, Awa Diouf, Adrienne Lees, Hannelore Niesten, Fabrizio Santoro, Christopher Wales

Working Paper

What are the Enablers and Impacts of Digital Financial Services? An Updated Evidence Gap Map

July 2024
Philip Mader, Keir Macdonald, Maren Duvendack, Mary Abounabhan, Celeste Scarpini, Hemangi Sharma

Working Paper

Comparative Analysis of the Implementation of Electronic Money Transfer Levies in Ghana and Nigeria: Policies, Legal Frameworks, and Outcomes

July 2024
Hannelore Niesten, Isaac Kobina Amoako, Bala Dahiru Abdullahi

Research in Brief

What are the Enablers and Impacts of Digital Financial Services? An Updated Evidence Gap Map

July 2024
Philip Mader, Keir Macdonald, Maren Duvendack, Mary Abounabhan, Celeste Scarpini, Hemangi Sharma

Research in Brief

Comparative Analysis of the Implementation of Electronic Money Transfer Levies in Ghana and Nigeria: Policies, Legal Frameworks, and Outcomes

July 2024
Hannelore Niesten, Isaac Kobina Amoako, Bala Dahiru Abdullahi

Research in Brief

The Ghana E-Levy: Impact on the Usage of Mobile Money

July 2024
Marco Carreras, Awa Diouf, Hannelore Niesten

Working Paper

The Ghana E-Levy: Impact on the Usage of Mobile Money

July 2024
Marco Carreras, Awa Diouf, Hannelore Niesten

In person

18 September 2025 – 09:00

•

Timezone: UTC

Century City Conference Centre, Century City, Cape Town, South Africa
ICTD Researchers Fabrizio Santoro and Dominic Ogembo will lead a masterclass on how Digital Public Infrastructure can shape the future of equitable taxation in Africa, drawing on findings from the Centre’s DIGITAX Research Programme, at the ATRN Congress.

Virtual

1 April 2025 – 14:00

•

Timezone: Europe/London

Join ICTD Research Fellow, Fabrizio Santoro, online to discuss simplifying and digitising tax systems.

Virtual

11 March 2025 – 14:00

•

Timezone: Europe/London

Webinar sharing key insights from the forthcoming World Bank-ICTD publication on Tax Identification Numbers.

Virtual

4 December 2024 – 14:00

•

Timezone: Europe/London

Join us for this ICTD-World Bank webinar which will discuss the impact of digitalisation of tax administrations on revenue authorities and taxpayers in low income countries.

Virtual

19 November 2024 – 06:30

•

Timezone: Europe/London

ICTD Research Fellow Fabrizio Santoro will speak about these concerns in the context of taxation, drawing from the Centre’s DIGITAX Research Programme, at the International Conference on Public Finance in the Digital Era, hosted by ODI Global and The Collaborative

Virtual

27 June 2024 – 14:00

•

Timezone: Africa/Kigali

We are delighted to contribute to the 10th Annual Conference of the Economic Policy Research Network, Rwanda, which this year has been organised around the theme Boosting Economic Resilience to Economic Shocks. ICTD Research Director, Giulia Mascagni, has given welcome

Virtual

26 June 2024 – 11:00

•

Timezone: UTC

The global digital public infrastructure (DPI) agenda is substantially informed by experiences from the Global North and South Asia. Africa has its own vast array of contributions to add to the debate. In a historic move, under India’s G20 Presidency

Virtual

16 May 2024 – 09:00

•

Timezone: Africa/Dar_es_Salaam

Co-hosted by Tanzania Revenue Authority, the International Growth Centre (IGC), and REPOA, the inaugural International Conference on Tax for Growth aims to “bring together world-leading researchers and policymakers to discuss questions relating to enhancing domestic resource mobilisation and strengthening tax

In person

28 February 2024 – 00:00

•

Timezone: Africa/Accra

Accra, Ghana
The workshop’s primary purpose is to explore how mobile money taxes could be designed in an effective and equitable way based on discussion centred around research and real-life experiences

Virtual

6 February 2024 – 13:00

•

Timezone: Europe/London

At a time when many African countries are facing strong fiscal pressures, the rapidly growing digital financial services sector – in particular mobile money – is a natural source to which some have turned in search of tax revenue. But

In person

5 June 2023 – 09:00

•

Timezone: Africa/Dar_es_Salaam

Nairobi Serena Hotel, Nairobi, Kenya
The ICTD is hosting a research and policy conference in Nairobi on the future of global tax governance in partnership with the Kenya School of Revenue Administration, and in collaboration with the the Committee on Fiscal Studies at the University

Virtual

10 November 2022 – 13:00

•

Timezone: Europe/London

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIT8OXnAYmA&ab_channel=InternationalCentreforTaxandDevelopment DIGITAX is delighted to announce the second webinar in DIGITAX’s e-levy series ‘The devil in the detail: Examining Ghana’s new e-levy from a policy design perspective’. There has been much debate around the implications of the e-levy since it

Completed

Tax Compliance Costs: Uganda

Start date: 23/02/2023

Completed

The impact of mobile money taxation on financial inclusion: The case of the Kenyan excise duty

Start date: 20/07/2022

Completed

An Introduction to Digital Tax Payment Systems in Low-and Middle-Income Countries

Start date: 08/08/2023

Completed

Digital financial services and digital IDs: What potential do they have for better taxation in Africa?

Start date: 08/12/2021

Completed

Should Governments Tax Digital Financial Services? A Research Agenda to Understand Sector-Specific Taxes on DFS

Start date: 09/08/2023

Completed

Mobile money and quality of tax administration and tax policy in developing countries

Start date: 16/08/2023

Completed

Tax compliance and Digital Financial Services in Burkina Faso: The role of formal and informal

Start date: 01/08/2023

Completed

Assessing the impact of e-filing and e-payment in Senegal

Start date: 15/08/2023

Completed

The impact of mobile money taxation on SACCOS and their members in Tanzania

Start date: 02/08/2023

Completed

The impact of taxation on mobile money agents: a case study on Cameroon

Start date: 09/08/2023

Completed

New taxpayer registration through ID – impacts on formalisation and revenue

Start date: 20/10/2025

Completed

E-Levy and merchant payment exemptions in Ghana

Start date: 09/08/2023
Njeri Okono
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Communications Consultant
Christopher Wales
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Associate Research Fellow
Moyo Arewa
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Programme Director, LoGRI
Marco Carreras
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Postdoctoral Fellow
Hannelore Niesten
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Associate Postdoctoral Fellow
Lucia Rossel
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Research Affiliate
Stephen Okiya
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Research Consultant