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

Journal Article

Cashless tax systems: voluntary vs. mandated digital payments in Eswatini

July 2026
Fabrizio Santoro, Phindile T. Masuku, Tanele Magongo

Research in Brief

Do Electronic Filing and Payment Increase Tax Compliance? Evidence from Large Taxpayers in Senegal

June 2026
Léo Czajka, Awa Diouf, Fabrizio Santoro

Journal Article

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

June 2026
Jule Kaini Tinta, Mouhamed Zerbo, Fabrizio Santoro, Awa Diouf, Kèrabouro Pale

Working Paper

Do Electronic Filing and Payment Increase Tax Compliance? Evidence from Large Taxpayers in Senegal

May 2026
Léo Czajka, Awa Diouf, Fabrizio Santoro

Journal Article

From cash to digital: how mobile money is transforming tax collection in developing countries

February 2026
Tania M. Azoa Balengla, Joseph Keneck Massil, Alphonse Noah, Bernard Clery Nomo Beyala

Journal Article

Platform Disempowerment: Business Power and the Taxation of Digital Financial Services

February 2026
Mary Abounabhan, Florence Dafe, Martin Hearson

Journal Article

How Tanzania’s Levy on Mobile Money Affects Small Businesses

January 2026
Stefanie Pfeil, Luciana Nyaoke Murimi, Marius Siebert, Fabrizio Santoro

Journal Article

Enhancing taxpayer registration with inter-institutional data sharing—evidence from Uganda

November 2025
Celeste Scarpini, Fabrizio Santoro, Moyo Arewa, Ronald Waiswa, Jane Nabuyondo

Research in Brief

The Potential of Digital ID Systems for Tax Administration: the Case of Ghana

February 2025
Fabrizio Santoro, Celeste Scarpini, Stephen Okiya

African Tax Administration Paper

The Potential of Digital ID Systems for Tax Administration: The Case of Ghana

December 2024
Fabrizio Santoro, Celeste Scarpini, Stephen Okiya

Working Paper

How Tanzania’s Levy on Mobile Money Affects Small Businesses

November 2024
Stefanie Pfeil, Luciana Nyaoke Murimi, Marius Siebert, Fabrizio Santoro

Research in Brief

How Tanzanian’s Levy on Mobile Money Affects Small Businesses

November 2024
Stefanie Pfeil, Luciana Nyaoke Murimi, Marius Siebert, Fabrizio Santoro

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