Thupeyo Muleya [email protected]
Zimbabwe has secured a powerful voice in how Africa collects tax, manages customs and funds its own development, after Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) Commissioner General Ms Regina Chinamasa was elected Vice-Chairperson of the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) Council for the 2026-2028 term.
Ms Chinamasa was elected during the 9th ATAF General Assembly held on Wednesday last week in Cairo, Egypt, alongside the 2026 ATAF Annual Meetings.
The country’s top Taxman will serve alongside newly elected Chairperson Mr Sam Shivute of Namibia in a Council which includes representatives from South Africa, Egypt, Benin, The Gambia, Gabon, Tanzania, Mauritius and Zambia. ATAF Executive Secretary Ms Mary Baine serves as an ex officio member.
“I am thankful to ATAF for the honour and the opportunity to be part of the continental drive to improve tax administration in Africa. Zimbabwe looks forward to contributing to ATAF’s continental leadership in advancing domestic resource mobilisation, strengthening tax administrations and facilitating trade across Africa,” said Ms Chinamasa.
ATAF is Africa’s premier body for tax administrations that brings together revenue authorities from across the continent to set the agenda on how Africa taxes, how it stops illicit financial flows, how it deals with multinational companies, and how it modernises customs and border systems.
For years, African countries have complained that global tax rules are made in Paris, Washington and London – often without Africa at the table. ATAF is Africa’s collective voice in those debates.
It is understood that Zimbabwe, like most African countries, is pushing domestic resource mobilisation – collecting what is due fairly and efficiently to fund roads, hospitals, schools, water and social protection.
ATAF’s core work is helping countries close tax gaps, improve compliance and broaden the tax base without overburdening ordinary citizens and small businesses.
As Vice-Chair, Ms Chinamasa will help oversee programmes on tax policy, audit, data exchange, digitalisation and capacity building – programmes that Zimra can bring home.
The election comes shortly after Zimra recently hosted Heads of Customs from Benin, Cameroon and Nigeria in July this year on a benchmarking exercise that saw them signing a joint communiqué committing to replicate Zimbabwe’s Beitbridge Border Post model in West and Central Africa, following a five-day benchmarking mission facilitated by Afreximbank.
The mission, held from 23 to 27 July 2026, brought the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, the Director-General of Cameroon Customs, Fongod Edwin Nuvaga, and the Director-General of Benin Customs, Colonel Raouf Malèhossou Aboudou, to Beitbridge to study how Zimbabwe transformed its busiest border through a public-private partnership.
In the Joint Communiqué, the three customs leaders said the visit was conceived within the African Continental Free Trade Area framework to deepen intra-African trade, particularly along the Sèmè-Kraké axis linking Nigeria and Benin and the Mfum-Ekok axis linking Nigeria and Cameroon.
