Repenser les incitations fiscales dans le secteur minier en Afrique

The report analyzes the prevalence and effects of tax incentives in Africa's mining sector, concluding that these measures frequently result in substantial public revenue losses and encourage aggressive tax avoidance. It argues that mining investments are driven more by resource quality and political stability than by tax breaks. The document recommends that African nations move away from generous, contract-based incentives and instead adopt regional tax harmonization and targeted, time-limited incentives linked to specific development goals, such as mineral processing and the energy transition.

• Tax incentives have caused substantial losses in mining revenues across Africa, with some losses equaling entire national budget deficits. For instance, Sierra Leone lost 131 million USD between 2014 and 2016 due to corporate tax exemptions for two companies, a sum equivalent to the country's 2024 budget deficit.
• Empirical evidence suggests that tax incentives are less effective at attracting mining investments than in more mobile sectors like textiles. Mining investors prioritize the location, quantity, and quality of mineral resources, as well as infrastructure and political stability, over tax incentives.
• Tax incentives facilitate illicit financial flows (IFFs) by encouraging aggressive tax avoidance and 'skimming'—where companies accelerate the extraction of high-grade ore during tax-free periods. They also enable profit shifting through the inflation of management fees or the use of inter-company loans to move funds to tax-exempt zones.
• The use of fiscal stabilization clauses often freezes inefficient or overly generous tax incentives for long periods, sometimes exceeding 30 years in countries like Burkina Faso, Burundi, Guinea, Madagascar, and Mali. These clauses can also hinder the implementation of the OECD/G20 global minimum tax reform.
• Tax incentives negatively impact local communities by reducing the revenues available for public services and creating an unfair playing field where foreign companies receive benefits that national companies and artisanal miners do not.
• The global minimum tax of 15% introduced by the OECD/G20 reduces the incentive for African countries to offer harmful tax breaks, as multinational companies would simply pay the difference to their home countries instead of the host state.
• Regional tax harmonization is proposed as a solution to end the 'race to the bottom' and the 'prisoner's dilemma' where countries compete to lower taxes. Examples of regional efforts include the SADC framework and the ECOWAS Community Mining Code.
• Future incentives should be performance-based and targeted toward the energy transition, such as encouraging the domestic processing of critical minerals or the adoption of clean energy technologies in mining operations.

APA

International Institute for Sustainable Development (2025). Repenser les incitations fiscales dans le secteur minier en Afrique. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2026-02/rethinking-tax-incentives-mining-africa-fr.pdf

Chicago

International Institute for Sustainable Development. Repenser les incitations fiscales dans le secteur minier en Afrique. 2025. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2026-02/rethinking-tax-incentives-mining-africa-fr.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=International Institute for Sustainable Development |title=Repenser les incitations fiscales dans le secteur minier en Afrique |date=2025 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2026-02/rethinking-tax-incentives-mining-africa-fr.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{internationalinstituteforsustainabledevelopment2025repenser, author = {{International Institute for Sustainable Development}}, title = {{Repenser les incitations fiscales dans le secteur minier en Afrique}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2025}, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2026-02/rethinking-tax-incentives-mining-africa-fr.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }