Mobile money is a booming industry in Africa, with potential benefits for economic development and financial inclusion. Facing strong fiscal headwinds, a growing number of African countries have introduced taxes on mobile money and other digital financial services (DFS), some of which have generated strong resistance. Critics are concerned that such taxes may attenuate the growth in DFS and disproportionately impact the lowest income households. ICTD explored the impact of different approaches to DFS taxation in Africa through its DIGITAX programme, which ran from 2020 to 2024. The DIGITAX team and a network of independent researchers conducted research in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda, as well as desk-based research with a broader geographical scope. This policy brief summarises the programme’s research findings and policy analysis.
Martin Hearson is a Research Fellow at IDS, co-Research Director of the ICTD and the International Tax programme lead. His research focuses on the politics of international business taxation, and in particular the relationship between developed and developing countries. Before joining ICTD, Martin was a fellow in international political economy at the London School of Economics and Political Science, teaching courses on political economy and global financial governance.
Philip Mader is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies and works with the ICTD's DIGITAX programme. His research areas include political economy, finance and development, youth employment, financialisation, financial inclusion and, more broadly, market-oriented interventions in development.
Mary Abounabhan is a Research Officer for the DIGITAX programme. Her research focuses on the the appropriateness and effectiveness of digital financial services taxes and their development impacts. She has completed her Masters of Globalisation, Business, and Development at the Institute of Development Studies, focusing her research on the Moral Economy of social media taxation in Lebanon.
Marco Carreras is an economist by training and works in development economics, focusing on development banks, agricultural economics, energy and corporate taxation. He is a post-doctoral fellow working on the DIGITAX team in the ICTD.
Awa is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the ICTD and an economist specialising in public finance in developing and transition countries. She holds a doctorate from the Université Clermont Auvergne in France, and the Initiative Prospective Agricole et Rurale (IPAR), a think tank based in Senegal.
Adrienne Lees is a Doctoral Fellow at ICTD, working primarily on projects relating to tax administration and compliance, and on the DIGITAX programme. She has completed an ODI Fellowship in the Tax Policy Department at the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development in Uganda. Adrienne holds an MSc in Economics for Development from the University of Oxford and is completing her PhD in Economics at the University of Sussex.
Hannelore Niesten is an ICTD consultant working as a Research Officer for the DIGITAX programme. Hannelore holds a PhD in Law from Maastricht University and Hasselt University (double degree), an LLM in Business and Finance law from George Washington University, Advanced Masters in Tax Law and Notary Law from the Catholic University of Louvain, and Masters in Globalization and Law, and European Law from Maastricht University.
Fabrizio is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, and the Research Lead for the second component of the ICTD's DIGITAX Research Programme. His main research interests relate to governance, public finance, and taxation, with a strong focus on impact evaluation methodologies and statistical analysis. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Sussex.
Christopher Wales is an ICTD consultant working as an Associate Research Fellow with the DIGITAX programme. He has worked with Prime Ministers and Finance Ministers in many countries on economic and fiscal policy, fiscal institutions, revenue administration, labour market issues and pension policy. Chris is currently Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Rwanda Social Security Board, member of the Council of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, and member of the Advisory Board of the Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation, which he was instrumental in founding.
Citation: Hearson, M., et al. (2024) Taxing Mobile Money in Africa: Risk and Reward, ICTD Policy Brief 10, Brighton: Institute of Development Studies DOI: 10.19088/ICTD.2024.071
