Cheikh Diba, Senegalese minister of Finance and Budget, took part this Tuesday in Dakar at the opening of the international conference on the taxation of the digital economy, organized from April 15 to 16 by the Foundation for capacity building in Africa (ACBF). An opportunity for him to highlight the crucial challenge that digital represents in development policies.
During his intervention, the minister insisted on the potential transformer of the digital economy. He recalled the global dynamics in the matter, stressing that “In 2023, the world Economic Forum noted that over the past ten years, the digital economy has believed at a rate 2.5 times higher than that of the GDP of the traditional economy, while according to the World Bank, it constitutes more than 15 % of world GDP. In Africa, the digital economy is a processing engine ”, he said.
Based on recent figures, Cheikh Diba also called on African countries to appropriate this technological revolution to better benefit their citizens. He notably highlighted the youth of the continent, the development of connectivity and the meteoric expansion of mobile payments: “With 70 % of the population under the age of 30, an increasing internet penetration rate (27 % in 2023), and a massive mobile Money (1105 billion dollars adoption passed through the Mobile Money accounts on the continent during the past year, which represents an increase of 15 % compared to 2023)”, reports the sun.
Major challenges to be met
However, the Minister did not fail to highlight the obstacles that still slow down digital on the continent. Access limited to electricity, economic losses linked to informality and the lack of tax coordination between African countries are among the main challenges : “Access to electricity remains a major obstacle. Barely 43 % of the African population benefit from reliable supply. The continent records an annual loss of $ 60 billion due to the non-numerization of the collection of illegal financial flows. The absence of a harmonized framework of digital taxation limits the capacity for common action ”, he regretted.
To deal with these issues, Cheikh Diba advocates concerted action on a continental scale. He calls for the harmonization of legislative executives, to a massive investment in digital infrastructure and in the training of young people, while strengthening cooperation with international institutions such as the OECD or the UN.
