Throughout 2024, RDF has worked at full capacity on projects in Ghana, Gambia, Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Rwanda, Zambia, Solomon Islands and Papa New Guinea. We also just started a new project in Sierra Leone and Liberia. In addition, we have continued our free remote technical support to other countries using our systems, even though we have no active projects there.
We started the year with a retreat workshop in Nairobi in February, bringing together all RDF staff. This time we also invited our key government counterparts in the mining sector to join us. This allowed countries to share experiences and learn from each other, and for us to get feedback and align our roadmap for the MCAS platform with their priorities.
In the mining sector we continued our work with the Minerals Commission in Ghana, with funding from the World Bank. Over 3,000 companies are using the online Ghana Mining repository to submit license applications, make payments and submit reports. The portal communicates with the MCAS system where Minerals Commission staff are managing the license process. We also started a new project with the Rwanda Minerals Board, who recently launched online applications using the MCAS platform (GIMCS). The Rwanda project is funded by GIZ and is introducing integrations allowing online payments and support to broaden system usage. In Solomon Islands, MMERE launched the online repository portal last year, and this year we focused on introducing the MCAS geodata modules. This great partnership was funded by the World Bank.
In the Gambia we supported the Petroleum Commission with the OGAS system, which is based on the xCAS platform. In Papa New Guinea we are doing a feasibility study for an OGAS-type of system, requested by the World Bank.
Our new project in Sierra Leone and Liberia, funded by GIZ focus primarily on expanding NMA and MME in terms of minerals traceability and exports. However, it also includes support to the environment sector, which we are very much looking forward to expand going forward.
In Zambia, we implemented a pilot project for EITI mainstreaming, creating a data warehouse for all transactional data related to EITI validation in one system, including a portal to present the data to the public. This was funded by the Chamber of Mines.
Our biggest achievements in 2024 however, may be related to the TAS/GovIn platform.
In Cote d’Ivoire, we are halfway through a major project with the decentralization directorate DGDDL, funded by AfDB. We have a team of specialists spread out around the country to support specific councils to digitize and increase revenue from local taxes. Already 20 municipalities are now using the TAS/GovIn platform and the number of taxes, payments and revenues collected are significantly increasing month by month, reaching over 68k transactions in November. The system was recently presented at a workshop by the supreme audit institutions Cour des Comptes with all 200 municipalities. The platform is designed to be scalable to a nation-wide tool for all municipalities, supporting the government digitalization drive.
In Cameroon, we completed a contract with the Ministry of Finance to introduce online registration of new taxpayers. As all companies (over 300k) are now submitting their tax returns (DSF) online, we have expanded the focus to individuals who can now register, be issued a TIN number and submit their returns online. Our support has helped significantly increase revenues by introduce better accountability and control of tax collection across over 1,000 TAS users in all DGI tax centers.
RDF is very grateful to all government counter-parts, consultants and donor partners that appreciates the importance of the work we do and supports us in one way or another. Over the years the list of professionals that have understood and actively push for our governmental support is very long and they all deserve our gratitude. Our work is at times challenging, and such like-minded support is crucial for our success and long-term impact.
