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Stakeholders will from October 1- 3, 2019 gather in Nairobi, Kenya for the 7th Pan-African conference on illicit financial flows (IFFS) and Tax. This year’s theme is on taxing intangibles, financial technology (FinTech) and the digitalised economy trends, challenges as well as opportunities for domestic revenue mobilisation in Africa.
The event is taking place as Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, initiate moves to tax online transactions from 2020 opening debates on how digital transactions can be taxed.
The Pan Africa Conference in IFFS and taxation is an annual convergence of key stakeholders involved in efforts to curb IFFS and enhance domestic resource mobilisation in Africa.
The platform draws together actors from governments, civil society, international organisations, legislators, media, academia and national campaigners to take stock of the current state of play illicit financial flows agenda in Africa as well as progress made through global, regional and country level initiatives.
About 26 speakers will be addressing audience drawn from within and outside the continent. Some of the speakers include Mr. Logan Wort, Executive Secretary of the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF); Mr. Mustapha Ndajiwo, founder and Executive Director of the African Centre for Tax and Governance (ACTG); Naro Omo-Osagie, lawyer and expert on tech and policy; Bitange Ndemo, a professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Nairobi with extensive research on how ICTs influence economic development in Africa. Others are Esther W. Muchiri Otieno with specialty in revenue and taxation law; Ms. Doris Akol, currently the Commissioner General at the Uganda Revenue Authority; and Pirfa Jingfa Tyem, a tax expert with the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) of Nigeria.
The conference seeks also to act as a platform to articulate problems and propose solutions and explore opportunities for collaboration and common action.
This year’s Conference is being co-convened by a number of organisations including: African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF), United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), Pan African Lawyers Union (PALU), African Forum and Network on Debt and Development (AFRODAD), Financial Transparency Coalition (FTC), Global Alliance for Tax Justice (GATJ), Action Aid, Oxfam, Coalition for Dialogue on Africa (CODA) and Trust Africa.
The convergence of experts and opinion leaders will provide an interactive forum for stakeholders to engage each other and deliberate on Africa’s specific policy progress, challenges and solution in curbing IFF and taxing an increasingly digitalised global economy.
