Addis Ababa, 03 September 2015(WIC) – The African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) says Ethiopia has come a long way in building its capacity of mobilizing domestic finance.
Professor Emmanuel Nnadozie, Executive Secretary of ACBF, speaking at a press conference held after presentation of the preliminary findings of 45 African countries, said one has to see the trend of data over the years in order to understand what Ethiopia achieved in mobilizing Domestic financial resources in the past six years or so that he or she would realize that Ethiopia has done a wonderful thing.
“We find out a number of good things about Ethiopia in terms of DRM in tax administration. It is the only country that has the capacity to strictly enforce terms of jail in tax malpractice,” he added.
The environment the foundation is operating in is constantly changing and so does Africa and the world, he remarked. “We need to take the destiny of our continent in to our hands. For that to happen, capacity building and capacity development remains central to our development,” said Nnadozie.
Professor Moses Kiggundu, Founding Editor of African Journal of Management and member of the ACBF technical working group, on his part said, “None of the achievement registered in Ethiopia was made possible without capacity development said the Ethiopian Minister of Finance in his opening remark. I agree with him. ”
Ethiopia covers close to 80 percent of its budget which currently stands at 223.5 billion birr from purely from taxation. That was a dramatic shift when compared to what Ethiopia used to collect almost a decade and half which is less than 5 billion birr. The GDP tax ratio of Ethiopia currently stands 12 percent. It is still lower than the Sub Sahara African Average of 18 percent.
Just 15 years ago, more than two third of African countries were mobilizing well below the average GDP Tax ratio. Now, that is reversed. That represents a change for me. For me, the story imperative in that it is like the glass is half full half empty story noted the Executive Secretary.
“We find out a number of good things about Ethiopia in terms of DRM in tax administration. It is the only country that has the capacity to strictly enforce terms of jail in tax malpractice,” he added.
Ethiopia covers close to 80 percent of its budget which currently stands at 223.5 billion birr from purely from taxation. That was a dramatic shift when compared to what Ethiopia used to collect almost a decade and half which is less than 5 billion birr. The GDP tax ratio of Ethiopia currently stands 12 percent. It is still lower than the Sub Sahara African Average of 18 percent.
The report which highlighted the need for higher capacity development in DRM in the light of financing Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and Africa Agenda 2063 is part of the ACBF flagship annual publication, Africa Capacity Development Report which is expected to be made public within a month.