When Lusaka opens its doors to Digital Government Africa 2025 this October, the room will not just hum with technical lingo and diplomatic wits. It will pulse with something far weightier: the question of whether Africa can afford to wait for external aid to finance its digital future, or whether it will choose to finance that future itself. And that is why The RegTech at DGA2025 is not arriving with mottoes.
We are landing with a proposition as old as the state itself: that domestic revenue is the anchor of independence. International development aid, especially after the Trump led government pulled the rug on USAID, isn’t even generous in press releases any more. It is shrinking before our own eyes. What remains is often earmarked, short-lived, or tangled in conditionalities. Meanwhile, African governments must digitalize services, build public trust, and expand their economies, all while managing fiscal diets too lean to cover the cost of ambition.
The alternative is hiding in plain sight. Taxes. Or more precisely, the fair collection of taxes owed but not currently paid, followed with wise investment in digital services!
5 Key Takeaways
- Africa must fund its digital future from within. Waiting for external aid no longer works. Shrinking donor support and rising borrowing costs mean governments must rely on domestic revenue to finance digital transformation and build resilient public services.
- Digital tax compliance creates fiscal space without raising rates. When governments implement digital tax monitoring and reporting systems thoughtfully, they close loopholes, reduce fraud, and expand the tax net fairly, giving them the funds to invest in essential public services.
- Investing in citizens builds trust, which drives compliance. When governments reinvest collected taxes into visible services, like faster licensing, digital identity systems, and reliable payment platforms, citizens cooperate willingly, creating a positive cycle that strengthens both governance and the economy.
- Long-term partnerships matter more than quick fixes. The RegTech demonstrates that digital governance succeeds when governments lead, civil society critiques, and private sector actors stay beyond initial rollouts. Presence, listening, and co-creation make reforms effective and enduring.
- Numbers are meaningful only when they serve people. Beyond fiscal gains, digital transformation touches daily lives, farmers register land efficiently, teachers access resources reliably, small business owners pay taxes transparently. Effective digital governance turns data and revenue into tangible dignity, not just abstract statistics.
The RegTech at DGA2025: A Different Kind of Construction Project
When people hear the word “construction,” they picture highways, airports, and bridges. But at DGA2025, construction means something less visible yet far more decisive: the building of financial room for governments to act. Without money in the coffers, digital reforms stay on National Digital Strategy PowerPoint slides, forever “planned,” never lived.
All of us can agree that tax compliance is not a topic that fills hotel ballrooms with applause, but it does fill treasuries. When domestic revenue goes up, governments gain the ability to finance their own digital transformation without waiting for aid flows that are thinning by the year. That is the story The RegTech is carrying to Lusaka.
The proposition is straightforward: start by tightening revenue collection through digital tax monitoring and reporting. Then, use those revenues to finance the very digital services that citizens have long been promised.
When citizens see their taxes reappear as quick as license renewals, efficient identity services, and reliable social programs, trust follows. And trust, in turn, drives compliance upward. This is not abstract theory; it is the visible cycle that pushes GDP upwards and pulls governments closer to the governed.
The Global Endorsement: IMF and World Bank
It would be naïve to suggest that The RegTech alone is carrying this banner. The world’s leading financial institutions have already set the tone. Both the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have been clear, domestic revenue mobilization is the single most reliable path to financing national development in the current era. Grants are shrinking, donor fatigue is real, and debt markets are less forgiving. What remains is a call for countries to build fiscal strength from within.
The data behind this is compelling. Nations that succeed in raising their own revenues not only close fiscal gaps but also step into negotiations with donors and creditors on stronger footing. Instead of pleading for external funds, they arrive at the table as partners with skin in the game. That distinction matters in geopolitics as much as it does in national budgets.
For Africa, the timing of this shift is nothing short of urgent. International aid is retracting, borrowing costs are climbing, and populations are growing younger and more connected. What remains is the collective capacity of nations to tax fairly, spend transparently, and prove to citizens that paying into the system pays back in real services. Yes, real services are digital services in the third decade of the 21st century!
The RegTech at DGA2025: What Digital Tax Compliance Actually Looks Like
At DGA2025, The RegTech will come to Lusaka to show practical examples of what happens when governments introduce digital compliance systems thoughtfully and sustain them with political will, rather than simply trading in theory. In the Pacific, for instance, small island states with limited fiscal room have shown that digital tax monitoring can close long-standing loopholes, reduce fraud, and even bring entire informal sectors into the light. The change was not cosmetic; it directly increased government revenue without burdening honest taxpayers with higher rates.
A similar pattern has emerged in parts of Eastern Europe, where carefully designed e-government platforms have reshaped the relationship between citizens and the state. When people experience government as efficient, fair, and predictable, compliance stops being an act of fear and becomes an act of trust. That shift is powerful: it not only lifts revenue but also strengthens the social contract.
Of course, none of these systems appear overnight. They require deliberate adaptation to local languages, laws, customs, and even patchy connectivity. But despite those challenges, they share one common thread: they work. Obviously, The RegTech at DGA2025 will advocate for systems that generate fiscal space while keeping tax rates steady, which is precisely the win policymakers crave in politically sensitive environments.
Beyond Compliance: Returning Value to Citizens
Fair taxation is only half the story. The other half is government delivery. No government can credibly ask citizens to comply if they continue to stand in endless queues for basic services, wrestle with outdated paperwork, or confront difficult systems that treat them as suspects rather than stakeholders. Compliance without delivery is a fragile bargain, and it rarely lasts.
This is why The RegTech’s proposition at DGA2025 rests on two connected steps. First, build fiscal strength through digital tax monitoring and reporting, close the gaps, reduce fraud, and expand the tax net fairly. Second, and just as critical, reinvest those revenues into digital public services that citizens can see, touch, and experience in their daily lives.
The menu of possibilities is neither abstract nor futuristic. Digital identity systems can secure access to health care, social protection, and education with accuracy and speed. Licensing and permitting platforms can eliminate days of wasted time, replacing clerks and counters with transparent digital processes. Government payment systems can return trust by showing citizens exactly where their money is spent, turning skepticism into a sense of shared responsibility.
These are not luxuries reserved for wealthy states. They are the very infrastructure of dignity in a digital century, a practical expression of fairness that proves to citizens that paying taxes is not a one-way extraction but part of a functioning cycle. When governments translate every additional kwacha, shilling, or cedi collected into services that save time, protect livelihoods, or create opportunities, citizens shift from complying out of obligation to cooperating willingly.
That is the promise The RegTech is carrying into Lusaka: a cycle where tax strengthens the state, and the state, in turn, strengthens its citizens.
The RegTech at DGA2025: The African Ministers’ Moment
At DGA2025, the audience is far from a room of detached technocrats. Ministers of internal affairs, finance, and ICT will sit shoulder-to-shoulder, each facing the same sobering question: how to fund ambitious digital programs when international donors are scaling back and external borrowing grows more costly. The tension in Lusaka will be familiar, dreams of digital transformation on one side, and the hard arithmetic of shrinking aid on the other.
The easy answer, of course, is to wait for the next donor round or hope for another concessional loan. Yet the harder, and more honest, answer is to look inward. Domestic revenue must become the bedrock of future digital services. Only then can governments claim true ownership over their development paths, deciding not just what to digitize but how, when, and at what pace.
This is precisely where The RegTech’s perspective matters. Our work across continents has shown that digital governance flourishes only when governments lead with vision, civil society critiques with purpose, and the private sector commits to staying beyond ribbon-cuttings. Fly-in consultants may deliver reports; we deliver presence. We do not arrive with glossy brochures and vanish once the ink dries. Instead, we remain, we listen, and we build with, not for.
We bring this philosophy to Lusaka: we believe that domestic revenue and long-term digital transformation partnerships, rather than fleeting aid, will fund Africa’s digital ambitions, deliver results, and earn the trust of its citizens.
The Human Side of Numbers
DGA2025 will no doubt feature grand speeches and cautious communiqués. But the real question is not what is said at the podium. The real question is whether African ministers will seize the chance to finance their own digital future rather than wait for the generosity of others.
And yes, it is easy to get lost in acronyms: IMF, WB, ICT, DRM. But behind every acronym is a citizen waiting. A farmer in Malawi who should not spend two days in a line to register land. A small business owner in Ghana who should not fear arbitrary taxation. A teacher in Zambia who is dreaming of digital teaching. Digital tax compliance and digital services are not abstractions for these citizens. They are daily realities that either work or don’t. When they do, trust in government grows. When they don’t, cynicism fills the gap.
We have seen both outcomes. And that is why our proposition is rooted not just in numbers but in people. The RegTech at DGA2025 is reaching out with one clear message: Africa does not need to wait for aid to build digital dignity. It already has the tools to do so, by raising domestic revenue fairly, reinvesting it transparently, and proving to citizens that government can be trusted.
Founder of The RegTech, focused on inclusive digital policies and scalable solutions through multilateral collaboration for global governance and development.
