Africa’s Tax Reform Debate Puts Women’s Working Lives at the Centre

The scale of informal employment makes these questions central to Africa’s tax debate, particularly for women whose livelihoods fall outside formal employment arrangements.

For women earning a living through informal work across Africa, the way taxes are calculated, collected and administered can shape the cost of doing business and the steps needed to enter the formal economy. Those everyday realities drove discussions at a seminar hosted by the African Development Bank Group and the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF), where policymakers called for tax systems that better reflect differences in women's and men's working lives.

Held in Abidjan and online on September 7, the gathering brought together tax administrators, researchers, development partners and gender specialists under the theme "Gender and Taxation: Advancing Gender-Responsive Tax Systems in Africa." Participants examined how governments could raise domestic revenue through policies that support women's economic participation, with attention to both the rules governing taxation and the processes people must navigate to meet their obligations.

Why Informal Work Matters to Tax Policy

The scale of informal employment makes these questions central to Africa's tax debate, particularly for women whose livelihoods fall outside formal employment arrangements. According to the Bank's African Economic Outlook 2026, informal work accounts for about 86 per cent of employment across the continent, covering 89.2 per cent of employed women compared with 82 per cent of employed men. These figures underline the importance of understanding how tax measures interact with different working conditions.

Panellists examined presumptive taxes, market levies and the procedures involved in tax compliance and business formalisation, considering how their effects can differ between women and men. Representatives from finance and gender ministries, revenue authorities, civil society and research institutions shared evidence and country experiences to explore reforms that could make tax systems fairer and easier to navigate. The discussion connected women's entrepreneurship with the wider need for effective public revenue collection.

Designing Rules Around People's Realities

Dr Jemimah Njuki, Director of the Bank's Gender, Women and Civil Society Department, called for better data and more accessible compliance and formalisation processes, placing people's lived circumstances at the centre of policy design. She said tax systems could reflect the realities of women and men and ensure that domestic resources and fiscal policy support gender equality and women's economic participation. Her remarks highlighted the importance of examining how a policy works in practice, beyond its written provisions.

Caroline Mutayabarwa, Manager of ATAF's Tax Academy, described the task as a broader question of fairness, extending beyond changes to administrative procedures. "We set out not merely to adjust administrative rules, but to build tax systems that serve every citizen fairly — which means confronting the structures that currently place an undue share of the burden on women," she said. Participants explored how that approach could support entrepreneurship and contribute to more efficient fiscal systems across Africa.

Giving Women a Stronger Voice in Tax Decisions

Women's representation within the institutions that administer taxes formed another part of the discussion, with ATAF's African Tax Outlook showing that women held just 27 per cent of executive positions in African tax administrations in 2022. The seminar marked five years of the ATAF Women in Tax Network, established in March 2021 to strengthen women's leadership and participation in the field through professional development and dialogue on gender-responsive tax policy.

The gathering was the third event in the Bank's Gender and Macroeconomics Programme series, following discussions on gender-responsive macroeconomic policy in November 2025 and budgeting in April 2026. Through research, webinars, cooperation between gender and finance ministries, and capacity building, the programme seeks to bring gender considerations into economic decision-making. The Bank and ATAF reaffirmed their commitment to exchanging evidence and country experience, giving policymakers a foundation for reforms that better serve the people who fund public services through taxation.