MWC22: Fiscal policy must incentivise investment in digital inclusion – Ken Ashigbey | 3News.com

Ken Edem Ashigbey has underscored the need for fiscal policy to focus on incentivising players in the tech industry to invest in areas that will boost digital inclusion across the continent.

He noted that the conference comes at a time when the Chamber is rounding up on its periodic total tax report for telecom operators in Ghana, and the figures show that the tax component of the revenue the industry generates has inched up a bit to 47Gp of every one cedi, which is a huge disincentive to investments by industry players into innovations that will boost digital inclusion.

Ashigbey said that was a typical example of how governments front-load their revenue expectations from the industry, instead of incentivising players so they could invest their remaining resources to expand accessibility.

Ashigbey said it is high time African governments reconsidered their approach to generating revenue from the technology sector and looked at reducing the cost of licenses and taxes so the industry players will be in a position to conveniently drive the digital inclusion agenda.

The Telecoms Chamber CEO noted that in Rwanda, where MWC Africa 2022 will be held, free Wi-Fi is very widespread and that is largely because government’s fiscal policy in that country incentivises industry players rather than muscling them for huge taxes and licensing fees.

“It is my fervent hope that the panel discussion on fiscal policy reforms will come out with innovative ways of making fiscal policies a driver of investments to bridge the digital gap faster.

“I expect that government representatives and regulators like the NCA () and their counterparts on the continent will be present at the session on fiscal policy reforms so they could pick some of the lesson to inform their approach to generating revenue from the industry,” he said.