The military governments of Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso plan to channel a portion of their national tax revenues into a newly created investment bank.
The move is part of a broader effort to reduce reliance on foreign donors and gain more control over their own development agendas, Bloomberg reported.
Serge Balima, an adviser to Burkina Faso’s junta leader Ibrahim Traoré, said each of the three countries will contribute about 5% of their tax income to fund the regional bank.
“We’ll pool resources from a set of taxes imposed in each state,” Balima explained. “Together, these funds will form the capital needed to create the bank, which will then be used to finance development projects.”
This initiative is the latest in a series of joint economic actions taken by the three countries since they withdrew from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) earlier this year.
In forming the Alliance of Sahel States, the trio has laid out plans for joint development of mining, energy, and infrastructure projects, with a focus on achieving economic indepce through shared resources and new fiscal measures.
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The three nations have also updated their natural resource laws to increase state control in mining projects.
In some instances, they have gone further by nationalising mines that were underperforming or not complying with regulations.
Their exit from ECOWAS and distancing from Western allies is partly rooted in frustration over what they see as a lack of effective support in their long-running fight against Islamist militants.
The governments of Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso have since cut military and diplomatic ties with France and the United States and are now building closer relationships with Russia, Iran, and Turkey.
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Image Credit: News Central
