African Finance Ministers Commits to Implementing Reforms
In a unanimous decision, the African Ministers of Finance, Planning, and Economic Development have proposed its commitment to implementing the needed reforms to promoting transparency and accountability which will mobilise domestic and external resources.
This was stated by the ministers at the end of the UN Economic Commission for Africa’s (UNECA) 53rd Conference of Ministers of Finance and Economic Planning and Development held in Addis Ababa on Tuesday.
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The Communique was entitled “Communique of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development on special drawing rights for low-income and middle-income countries”.
According to the ministers, African countries had demonstrated that they can deploy technology to increase revenues to their benefit, adding that many countries on the continent had introduced e-taxation to increase resource mobilisation.
They said that countries were using digital platforms to attract local communities in the oversight of public spending and transparency.
The finance ministers added that African governments were enhancing their tax administration systems to identify, track and stem illicit financial flows (IFFs). The group stressed that global support was necessary to continue the battle against IFFs.
They added that this was needed especially in the areas of big data analytics, machine learning and neural network programming, which aids a variety of tools and methods to predict illicit behaviour and measure IFFs more accurately.
Expressing optimism that more African countries were improving the enabling environment for business, the group noted that, “The comprehensive reforms being undertaken by African countries must be complemented by the availability of more resources for all countries.”
The Finance ministers further called on partners to pay attention to the call of the G7 for new issuance of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) and to move for the implementation of the G20 Common Framework.
They also asked partners to extend the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) till the end of 2021.
