About the ATAF Databank

ATAF databank is a synopsis of the one of the ATAF’s online data platform called the African Tax Outlook (ATO) data portal which displays and describes tax administrative, customs, and macroeconomic data of a wide array of African countries. This data is used every year to produce the annual editions of the ATO publication and related research papers.

The ATO data portal launched on 22 November 2017, provides ATAF members and non-members with the unique opportunity to collect a harmonized set of national-level information and data on tax and customs administration. This data portal aims to improve the comparability, analysis, consistency, quality and accessibility of revenue data for participating countries in Africa. The ATO data platform is a tool that not only allows participating tax administrations to simplify the collection of their tax statistics but also gives them an opportunity to conduct their own analysis with the view to improving their efficiency and effectiveness.

Tax administrations in Africa generate considerable bodies of data that stem from all variety of tax accounts and returns in all categories of taxes and duties. Yet such data are under-collected and underutilized. The ATAF databank collects these statistics and provides in-depth analysis to improve comparability, analysis, quality and accessibility of revenue data for Africa. Indeed, without them there can be neither efficient policy nor sustainable reforms. In addition, producing authentic and reliable empirical data and statistics will strongly contribute towards enhancing the credibility and visibility of ATAF and its members, thus strengthening the Secretariat position and legitimacy, and firmly establishing ATAF among others as a Research Centre on tax matters in Africa.

This databank provides annual information which is updated every year. For comparison purposes, all monetary related data are displayed by using the Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) currency in US dollars. The PPP is defined, and its source explained. When exporting the ATO data or information from the ATAF databank – ATAF as a referencing source should always be mentioned.

The ATAF databank presents, assesses and compares ATO participating countries against indicators in the following broad categories (themes): tax bases, tax structure, revenue performance, and tax and Customs administration. These indicators are crucial to African tax authorities as they implement reforms and policies to broaden the tax base, narrow tax gaps, simplify and improve fairness in tax systems, enhance overall voluntary compliance, and keep policy makers informed on tax matters.

ATO Participating Countries

The ATAF databank covers data from 2010 to 2021 calendar year for an expected number of 37 African countries.

The steady growth in the number of participating members underlines the fact that African countries realized the need of building strong, effective, and efficient tax systems and as such require reliable statistics to come up with sustainable policy and administrative decisions.

In 2016, ATAF launched the first ATO publication with 15 countries. Currently, the 2022 edition was released and included these countries: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina-Faso, Burundi, Cape Verde, Cameroon, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire, DR Congo, Eswatini, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, South Africa, Sierra-Leone, Tanzania, The Gambia, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The following countries are expected to join the ATO project next year: Congo, Guinea, Mauritania, South Sudan and Sudan. 

How to use the ATAF Databank

  • How to use the interactive data?
    Step 1: Select one indicator on top right – the ATAF databank includes a group of 38 indicators for 35 African countries. On quadrant 1, the African map tweaks after your first selection to reflect the selected indicator.
    Step 2: Toggle your cursor in the map to see your selected indicator. Select your required year from the bar that appears below the map.
    Step 3: Select one or more countries from quadrant 2 – Selected indicator appears in quadrants 3 and 4. Selected countries can be removed from quadrants 3 and 4.
    Step 4: Download and or export the produced chart or graph of indicators.
           Step 1: Choose country. Select one, more or all countries on the list.
           Step 2: Choose the year: Select one or more year(s).
           Step 3: Choose Indicators: Select one or more indicators and click the submit button. A form will automatically pop-up and kindly complete it.