Cotonou, Benin – The Tax Transparency in Africa 2026 Report, jointly produced by the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes and the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF), was launched on 30 June 2026 at the 19th Africa Initiative Meeting in Cotonou, Benin, showing encouraging progress across the continent.
According to the report, African countries are strengthening their Exchange of Information (EOI) frameworks, improving peer review outcomes, expanding Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI), and increasingly using tax transparency to combat tax evasion and protect domestic revenues.
Yet the report also points to the next frontier. Building legal and institutional frameworks is only the beginning, with the real measure of success lying in how effectively tax administrations use exchanged information to strengthen compliance, improve audits, generate tax assessments and ultimately increase domestic revenue mobilisation.
This was a key message shared by ATAF Executive Secretary Mary Baine during the report’s launch. While recognising the significant progress made, she called for continued investment in administrative capacity, practical implementation tools, technology and regional cooperation to ensure African countries maximise the benefits of tax transparency.
As a co-producer of the report, ATAF is complementing these efforts with practical continental solutions such as the ATAF Agreement on Mutual Assistance in Tax Matters (AMATM), which strengthens cross border administrative cooperation, and an African developed AEOI IT Solution, created in partnership with the Zambia Revenue Authority and with support from the World Bank Group, to help countries securely exchange and effectively use financial account information under the Common Reporting Standard (CRS).
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