African Tax Observatory

14.3%

Median member, 2010

26 members reporting

14.3%

Median member, 2024

38 members reporting

31.5%

Highest, Namibia

lowest: Chad, 5.0%

22/38

At or above the world

World Bank central-government figure, 13.9%

Walk the Taxscape →Open the notebook →Read today's wire →

Plate II·The gap

Measured on the same basis, the gap is inside Africa

The median member sits 0.4 points above the world figure. The distance between Chad and Namibia is 26.4 points.

The gap

Every ATAF member, one dot each

Year

World: 13.9%OECD members: 15.7%Africa Eastern and Southern: 18.2%

Eastern AfricaCentral AfricaNorthern AfricaSouthern AfricaWestern Africa

Dots are ATAF members, coloured by African Union region; the dashed line is the median member (14.3%). The solid lines are World Bank central-government tax revenue for comparison groups (indicator GC.TAX.TOTL.GD.ZS). That series, like ATAF's, leaves out social security contributions and taxes collected by local governments, which is why the OECD figure here sits far below the OECD's own headline tax-to-GDP ratio.

Show the numbers as a table

Country	AU region	Tax % of GDP 2024
Namibia	Southern Africa	31.47
South Africa	Southern Africa	24.55
Seychelles	Eastern Africa	24.37
Morocco	Northern Africa	23.58
Mozambique	Southern Africa	23.24
Lesotho	Southern Africa	21.30
Mauritius	Eastern Africa	19.98
Malawi	Southern Africa	19.82
Cabo Verde	Western Africa	19.69
Gabon	Central Africa	18.06
Zambia	Southern Africa	18.02
Togo	Western Africa	18.01
Senegal	Western Africa	17.86
Eswatini	Southern Africa	16.37
Rwanda	Eastern Africa	14.63
Burkina Faso	Western Africa	14.58
Mauritania	Northern Africa	14.41
Benin	Western Africa	14.36
Ghana	Western Africa	14.31
Kenya	Eastern Africa	14.28
Burundi	Central Africa	14.01
Cameroon	Central Africa	14.00
Tanzania	Eastern Africa	13.18
Botswana	Southern Africa	13.06
Côte d'Ivoire	Western Africa	12.71
Uganda	Eastern Africa	12.62
Zimbabwe	Southern Africa	12.44
Gambia	Western Africa	12.31
Liberia	Western Africa	12.13
Nigeria	Western Africa	10.47
Madagascar	Eastern Africa	10.46
Democratic Republic of Congo	Central Africa	9.81
Sierra Leone	Western Africa	8.00
Congo	Central Africa	7.61
Niger	Western Africa	7.11
Central African Republic	Central Africa	6.40
Angola	Southern Africa	5.12
Chad	Central Africa	5.04
World Bank benchmark: World		13.86
World Bank benchmark: OECD members		15.72
World Bank benchmark: Africa Eastern and Southern		18.23

1

The benchmarks are the World Bank's central-government tax series, built on the same basis as what revenue authorities collect.

2

The OECD's headline ratio also counts social security contributions and local taxes, which is why comparisons with it overstate the gap.

3

Half of members collected between 12.2% and 18.0% of GDP in 2024.

Plate III·Catching up, or drifting apart

Two tests, two different answers

Low starters gained a little faster, yet the spread between countries widened from 4.6 to 5.7 points. Over fifteen years the typical ratio barely moved.

Catching up or falling behind

Starting level against the change since, 2012 to 2024

Start year

Each dot is a country observed in both years. The line is an ordinary least-squares fit: slope -0.033 points per year for every point of starting ratio (standard error 0.014, n = 32), which is negative and more than twice its standard error: countries that started low gained faster. This is beta convergence; the dispersion chart below tests the other kind.

Show the numbers as a table

Country	Tax % of GDP 2012	Tax % of GDP 2024	Change, points per year
Angola	6.53	5.12	-0.12
Benin	10.53	14.36	0.32
Botswana	14.36	13.06	-0.11
Burkina Faso	15.07	14.58	-0.04
Burundi	14.65	14.01	-0.05
Cabo Verde	17.89	19.69	0.15
Cameroon	12.53	14.00	0.12
Côte d'Ivoire	16.70	12.71	-0.33
Democratic Republic of Congo	10.12	9.81	-0.03
Eswatini	10.96	16.37	0.45
Gambia	16.21	12.31	-0.32
Ghana	17.39	14.31	-0.26
Kenya	16.75	14.28	-0.21
Lesotho	16.50	21.30	0.40
Liberia	21.39	12.13	-0.77
Madagascar	8.37	10.46	0.17
Malawi	13.28	19.82	0.54
Mauritius	16.59	19.98	0.28
Mozambique	18.70	23.24	0.38
Namibia	16.36	31.47	1.26
Niger	10.03	7.11	-0.24
Nigeria	8.75	10.47	0.14
Rwanda	13.08	14.63	0.13
Senegal	18.62	17.86	-0.06
Seychelles	28.31	24.37	-0.33
Sierra Leone	11.95	8.00	-0.33
South Africa	21.90	24.55	0.22
Tanzania	11.45	13.18	0.14
Togo	16.47	18.01	0.13
Uganda	9.94	12.62	0.22
Zambia	16.14	18.02	0.16
Zimbabwe	27.48	12.44	-1.25

Are countries drifting apart?

How spread out the continent is, year by year

Standard deviationInterquartile range

The same 31 countries in every year (a balanced panel, so countries joining or dropping out cannot fake a trend). The standard deviation moved from 4.6 to 5.7 points between 2012 and 2024: a rising line means the gap between high and low collectors is widening (sigma divergence). The interquartile range, which ignores the extremes, is drawn for comparison.

Show the numbers as a table

Year	Standard deviation (points)	Interquartile range (points)	Mean (%)
2012	4.56	5.52	14.76
2013	4.72	5.73	14.56
2014	4.82	5.33	14.92
2015	4.68	5.68	15.05
2016	4.97	4.85	14.89
2017	5.04	4.71	14.64
2018	5.83	4.89	15.10
2019	7.22	5.53	15.59
2020	6.23	5.61	14.79
2021	5.67	5.08	14.65
2022	5.06	6.11	15.10
2023	5.17	7.49	15.41
2024	5.66	6.39	15.54

1

Beta convergence: across 32 members, the slope is -0.033, more than twice its standard error.

2

Sigma convergence uses the same 31 countries every year, so countries joining or leaving cannot fake a trend.

3

Both can be true when a few countries move a long way at either end. The notebook shows why.

Plate IV·What is taxed

VAT (domestic and on imports) is the largest single tax

Counting each country once, VAT went from 36.2% to 34.3% of tax revenue between 2015 and 2024; import duty from 12.1% to 10.0%.

What Africa taxes

The mix of taxes, as shares of all tax revenue

Weighting

VAT (domestic and on imports)Personal income taxCorporate income taxImport dutyAll other taxes

The 29 members that report total tax and all four named heads in every year from 2015 to 2024. "Each country counts once" averages every country's own mix; "by size of collections" pools the money, so South Africa and Nigeria dominate. "All other taxes" is total tax minus the named heads, shown so nothing is silently dropped.

Show the numbers as a table

Year	VAT (domestic and on imports) (share)	Personal income tax (share)	Corporate income tax (share)	Import duty (share)	All other taxes (share)
2015	0.36	0.17	0.15	0.12	0.19
2016	0.36	0.18	0.14	0.12	0.20
2017	0.35	0.17	0.15	0.12	0.21
2018	0.35	0.17	0.16	0.11	0.20
2019	0.34	0.18	0.17	0.11	0.20
2020	0.34	0.19	0.17	0.11	0.19
2021	0.33	0.17	0.17	0.11	0.22
2022	0.33	0.16	0.20	0.10	0.21
2023	0.33	0.16	0.19	0.10	0.22
2024	0.34	0.16	0.21	0.10	0.19

1

The 29 members that report total tax and the four named heads in every year from 2015.

2

Switch to weighting by size and a few large economies with big income-tax bases take over the picture.

3

"All other taxes" is total tax minus the named heads, shown so that nothing is silently dropped.

Plate V·Where Uganda sits

Uganda: 12.6%, 26 of 38

1.7 points below the median member in 2024; each 1% of growth since 2010 has brought about 1.15% more tax.

Where Uganda sits

Ranked, 2024

Compare Uganda with

Uganda ranks 26 of 38 in this group. Bars are ATAF tax revenue over nominal GDP; the comparison group can be narrowed to the East African Community, the AU Eastern region, or countries in Uganda's World Bank income group (Low income).

Show the numbers as a table

Rank	Country	Tax % of GDP 2024
1	Namibia	31.47
2	South Africa	24.55
3	Seychelles	24.37
4	Morocco	23.58
5	Mozambique	23.24
6	Lesotho	21.30
7	Mauritius	19.98
8	Malawi	19.82
9	Cabo Verde	19.69
10	Gabon	18.06
11	Zambia	18.02
12	Togo	18.01
13	Senegal	17.86
14	Eswatini	16.37
15	Rwanda	14.63
16	Burkina Faso	14.58
17	Mauritania	14.41
18	Benin	14.36
19	Ghana	14.31
20	Kenya	14.28
21	Burundi	14.01
22	Cameroon	14.00
23	Tanzania	13.18
24	Botswana	13.06
25	Côte d'Ivoire	12.71
26	Uganda	12.62
27	Zimbabwe	12.44
28	Gambia	12.31
29	Liberia	12.13
30	Nigeria	10.47
31	Madagascar	10.46
32	Democratic Republic of Congo	9.81
33	Sierra Leone	8.00
34	Congo	7.61
35	Niger	7.11
36	Central African Republic	6.40
37	Angola	5.12
38	Chad	5.04

1

Narrow the comparison to the East African Community, the AU Eastern region, or Uganda's World Bank income group.

2

Uganda's own decade, from URA's data, is told in The Gospel of Tax.

3

Every ATAF figure for Uganda is on its country sheet.

Plate VI·The sources

Where every number comes from

Revenue and GDP are from the ATAF Databank's free export of 23 indicators, pulled 14 October 2026, in US dollars at purchasing-power parity. Tax and GDP are converted with the same factor, so their ratio is the ratio in local currency. Benchmarks, population and income groups are from the World Bank's World Development Indicators. Egypt returned no observations from the Databank and appears on no chart. ATAF publishes 20 further indicators, such as administration costs, staffing and customs clearance, only on request; they are not used here.

The colophon: methods, checks and changelog·The catalogue: every download

Plate VII·Legend

Using this atlas

Every tool in the atlas, and what it is for.