Presenting our report to the Minister of Finance and senior officials during a meeting chaired by the His Excellency, the Prime Minister.

I was invited by the authorities to review Burkina Faso’s tax system and I conducted this assignment with a colleague in August/September 2016. Our report, which was well received, set out a high-level strategy for further reform in tax and customs administration in Burkina Faso. 

The report began with an assessment of the very good initiatives that had already been undertaken by the authorities. It reviewed the achievements made to date in mobilising domestic revenues whilst making the business case for further investment in revenue mobilisation in 2017-20. As such the report was written to sit squarely within the National Plan for Economic and Social Development (Plan National de Développement Économique et Social - PNDES). 

The report discussed the possible creation of a Revenue Authority – a strategy that has been successfully pursued by many African countries – and the document contained text evaluating the pros and cons of this initiative.

The document provided a frank assessment of some of the risks foreseen as well as a high-level Logical Framework for the anticipated phase of support and it set out a monitoring and evaluation framework for this proposed support phase.

It was anticipated that the Government of Burkina Faso and its international development partners would use the report as a roadmap to guide further investment in tax reform and domestic revenue mobilisation. It was envisaged that the international community could choose to support discrete parts of the required investment and thus the document was prepared as a means of coordinating and managing possible future donor investments in domestic revenue mobilisation.

Departing Ougadougu at the conclusion of our mission.

Our report was widely read within the top political leadership of Burkina Faso, and His Excellency, the President passed instructions for the recommendations to be adapted, beginning with the Income Tax Department. The report was widely referenced by Burkina Faso’s primary development partners.

As the report was prepared in confidencce, it will not be published on this website. However, I will be happy to discuss its contents with persons having a direct interest in domestic revenue mobilisation in Burkina Faso.