The Senegalese government is considering taxing money transfers and mobile payments. The idea, included in the 2025-2028 economic recovery plan, comes in a context of intense budgetary pressure: debt exceeding 100% of GDP, lower than expected tax revenues, and the need to finance major projects. But as digital represents the most widely used financial solution in the country, this tax policy raises a central issue: taxing mobile money means taxing the daily life of millions of Senegalese people.
A sector vital to the Senegalese economy
Mobile money is the backbone of financial inclusion in Senegal. Less than 30% of the population has a traditional bank account, but over 90% of adults over 15 years old use a mobile wallet to send, receive, pay, save, or support a business. In 2025, the volume of mobile transactions reached 15,300 billion CFA francs, equivalent to 27 billion dollars.
Family transfers, merchant payments, small savings, or local sales now heavily rely on this tool. Introducing a mandatory levy, even minimal, mechanically increases the cost of every daily transaction.
A tax that would hit the most vulnerable first
Unlike a profit tax, the proposed tax of 0.5% on each transfer would apply to every transaction, regardless of the amount, and regardless of the user’s profile. It would function as a VAT on the circulation of money: the more one uses mobile money, the more one pays, even if they are modest.
A student sending 1,000 francs, a vendor paying for their stock in small amounts, a father transferring his salary in installments, all will see their costs rise. The tax will not target wealth, but movement.
The African precedent: when taxing kills usage
The effects are already known because elsewhere, the story has already been written. In Uganda, Tanzania, Cameroon, Ghana, taxes on mobile transactions were introduced to increase tax revenues. Everywhere, usage decreased, volumes dropped, and cash returned. Taxation designed to bring money into the coffers ended up taking less out. This is the paradox: taxing to collect, but by taxing digital, we cut the branch that bore the harvest.
Other solutions exist to increase revenues without hindering inclusion: target profits rather than transactions; accelerate the digitization of public payments; expand traceability; tax sectors that are still not contributing much. Tax reform can support prosperity, as long as it does not suffocate the engine that drives it.
In essence, the question is simple: does Senegal want to tax mobile money as wealth, or consider it as the road to wealth? Because if we tax the road, fewer people will take it. And the whole country could slow down.
