EU to contribute to the IMF Technical Assistance centres in West Africa (AFRITAC II) to bring top-of-the range technical assistance on public finance management, macroeconomic and tax reforms that will spur economic growth, jobs and trade. The following ECOWAS countries will be covered: Cabo Verde; Ghana; Gambia; Nigeria; Sierra Leone
Main activities:
The TA to be provided by AFRITAC will focus on three main areas:
Macroeconomic management (public finance management, customs and tax management, debt management and macroeconomic policy);
The financial system (consolidation of the banking sector regulation and micro-finance) and monetary policy;
Information Systems and statistics
Main results to date: The centre activities are underway. The 4th Steering Committee meeting was held in Abuja in March 2018. AFRITAC West 2’s capacity building efforts in the region are slowly having a positive impact in member countries. The centre has made efforts to increase the pace of activities, is now fully staffed and has also the required results-based reporting expertise Interventions including delivery of Technical Assistance in: strengthening of inflation targeting framework (Ghana), improving public financial management with the Kaduna State Government (Nigeria), revenue mobilization and technical assistance on improving VAT compliance. The centre has broadened geographic scope of the activities and made efforts to work with countries such as Liberia and Sierra Leone in particular the implementation of the Tax Administration Diagnostic and Assessment Tool (TADAT). Source of funds: 10th EDF (CRIS Ref. 2012 / 023-727) Total budget (EUR): 31.7M Implementation period: 4 years (2014-2018) Implementing agency: IMF Geographical region: Cabo Verde, Ghana, Gambia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone