The Growing Potential of Excise Taxation as a Source of Domestic Revenue Mobilisation in the context of the African Continental Free Trade Area

African governments are committed to fund the continent’s development and are actively influencing Africa’s destiny. The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of emphasise the need to strengthen domestic resource mobilisation (SDG Target 17.1) through enhanced domestic capacity for tax and revenue collection in order to increase the financial means of implementing the SDGs. The African Union’s Agenda 2063 emphasises that African countries must enhance domestic resource mobilisation by implementing effective, transparent, and uniform tax and revenue collecting processes. One of the main sources of funding, along with government development assistance and private investment flows, is the mobilisation of domestic resources. This chapter demonstrated that, similar to other taxes, excise taxes are the outcome of a combination of appropriate tax policy measures and efficient tax administration procedures. Furthermore, in the African context, the importance and benefits of tax administration methods was emphasised as they are essential to maximising the efficacy of excise taxes. In addressing tax and revenue collection within the framework of the African Continental Free Trade Area, this chapter urged African governments—particularly their finance ministries and revenue authorities—to take the lead in financial resource mobilisation for sustainable development.