RISING from its stakeholders’ pre-inaugural meeting, held in Nigeria, Association of African Tax Institutes (AATI) came up with far reaching resolutions to promote good tax regime and economic harmonisation cum integration among countries within the African region.

According to the newly elected President of the Association, Mr. John Jegede, who is also the president of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN), the initiative is aimed at furthering the promotion of economic collaboration, harmonisation and integration within the continent through the use of taxation, which he described as a veritable economic transformation tool.

“It is a rare and unique opportunity for African countries to come together and fashion out harmonised process of having uniform and robust tax regime on the continent. This  is a nobel idea of bringing all tax institutes within the African contnent under one umbrella. This platform is expected to provide a medium where ideas on how to improve tax practice and administration within the African Continent would be proffered and analysed by seasoned professionals in such a way that the socio-economic problems bedevilling most countries on the continent could be  nipped in the bud permanently”, he noted.

He said AATI would assist to bridge the divide between tax professionals in the countries of member bodies, their government and taxpayer, warning that they might be faced with the daunting challenge of ensuring that a professionalised tax administration and practice was established in the region.

Taking a retrospective look at the various efforts made in the past towards the advancement and promotion of taxation profession within the various jurisdiction, Jegede said the formation of the new association remained very germane to the prosperity of the region as all the countries within the region must come to terms with some peculiar challenges encountered especially as it relates to assisting governments to fashion sound tax policies.

He called on member bodies to carry along all major stakeholders within their jurisdiction to make the realisation of the association’s objective possible.

“As a matter of urgency, we need to devise strategic ways of encouraging countries within the African continent that do not have professional tax bodies to establish one so that the potential gains of such could spread through the nook and crannies of the continent.