Report

COVID-19 Pandemic Impact on Domestic Resources Mobilisation in Africa: A Call for Action

COVID-19 is one of the greatest challenges that African authorities have ever faced in a generation. Given its impact on the entire world population and the economy, the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared it a global pandemic and has become a global emergency. Despite the reactionary measures being put in place by African governments, COVID-19 continues to spread across the continent. In coping with the coronavirus pandemic, African countries have implemented a number of measures aimed at reducing the continuous spread of the virus. Some of these measures include closure of companies deemed as not critical, social distancing, banning large gatherings, curfews and confinement (partial/total), border control and closure, closure of markets, suspension of non-essential activities and travel bans. Against this background, the purpose of this paper to interrogate on the implications of coronavirus on the domestic resources mobilisation. This paper argues that coronavirus has negatively affected DRM efforts by African countries. The implications of coronavirus on DRM are two pronged. Firstly, the coronavirus pandemic has affected the global economy. As a consequent, this has also affected DRM efforts by African countries since they rely heavily on the export of primary commodities. Secondly, the responses by countries to cope with coronavirus pandemic have also implications on DRM especially on taxation. Important to mention is the fact that Africa is already facing challenges as far as the mobilisation of resources is concerned.