The OECD has announced that Botswana has joined the Yaoundé Declaration, a regional initiative for tax transparency.

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Botswana joins Yaoundé Declaration – 33 African countries now signatories

09/03/2022 – On 4 March 2022, Botswana’s Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Hon. Peggy Serame, endorsed the Yaoundé Declaration, adding her country’s voice to this important regional initiative for transparency and exchange of information for tax purpose.

Originally signed by four countries in November 2017, the Yaoundé Declaration encouraged the African Union to begin a high-level discussion on tax co-operation, the fight against illicit financial flows (IFFs) and their link to domestic resource mobilisation. Less than five years later, with Botswana’s support, 33 African ministers of Finance and the African Union Commission now back the Declaration.

Launched in 2014 with the objective to unlock the potential of tax transparency and exchange of information for Africa, the Africa Initiative has included significant engagement at ministerial level to ensure political buy-in and sustained momentum, as reflected by the growing support for the Yaoundé Declaration. These joint efforts aim at ensuring that African countries take ownership of the tax transparency agenda and promote it to serve the continent’s interests. To this end, the annual report Tax Transparency in Africa highlights progress made and points to remaining challenges.

The Global Forum is the leading multilateral body mandated to ensure that jurisdictions around the world adhere to and effectively implement both the standard of transparency and exchange of information on request and the standard of automatic exchange of financial account information. These objectives are achieved through a robust monitoring and peer review process. The Global Forum also runs an extensive capacity-building programme to support its members in implementing the standards and help tax authorities make the best use of cross-border information sharing channels.