African tax Policy makers and administrators are in Kigali for the second edition of African Tax Administration Forum’s (ATAF) high level tax policy dialogue in a bid to harmonize and strengthen Africa’s position in the international tax arena. Dr. Uzziel Ndagijimana, Rwandan Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, said: “The design of our tax systems must consider global dimension of tax policies.” However, experience shows that Africa needs to put in more effort to position itself and participate actively in the global tax agenda by being more proactive than reactive. Minister Ndagijimana indicated that Africa’s tax to GDP ratio is below 18%, and loses over US$ 50 billion in illicit financial flows. “We will not develop at the rate we wish, if we are not able to mobilize domestic resources in a more effective manner,” he stated, noting that the level of resources lost through Illicit financial flows are higher than the official aid received by Africa. According to Dr. Ndagijimana, the global Sustainable Development Goals can only be realistically achieved through a coordinated response to resolve taxation issues with a view to increase domestic resource mobilization This would help us build effective, transparent and harmonized tax and revenue collection systems; Reduce aid dependency; Enhance domestic savings and eliminate all forms of illicit flows. Domestic revenue mobilization improved substantially in recent decades but tax-to-GDP ratios are still low in most of our countries and the continent is still heavily dependent on external financing, including foreign aid.” The agenda 20163 is that African taxes in Africa might be sufficient to finance needs of African countries which are still more reliant on foreign aids. Mr. Babatunde Fowler, the African tax administration forum’s chairman called policy makers and tax administrators not to wait until 2063 to realize that objective, urging an urgent action to alleviate economies of the continental countries. “2063 is forever to achieve our goal of financing our self needs. Something has to be done now,” he said. The African target is to eliminate all illicit financial flows by 2025, and this will require extensive strengthening of tax legislation in both direct and indirect taxes.