Initiative description

Background and context

Property taxes remain one of the most underused sources of local revenue in sub-Saharan Africa, even as cities face increasing demands to deliver basic services and manage rapid urban growth. While they hold considerable potential, actual collections tend to be very low – usually less than 0.5% of GDP, compared to between 1% and 2.5% in OECD countries. In Senegal, the figure is even lower, with property tax revenues contributing just 0.3% of GDP – roughly a fifth of what could be raised.

Dakar Region is a clear example of the wider challenges facing property tax systems in the region. Despite being a densely built and fast-growing metropolitan area with considerable potential to raise local revenue, property tax collections remain low. Only about 61,000 properties were listed on the tax roll before the reform, compared to an estimated total of 370,000 – representing a registration rate of roughly 16%. Payment rates are also weak: in 2022, only 10% of issued tax bills were paid, and actual collections amounted to just 16% of total assessed liabilities (Knebelmann et al., 2024).

Several factors account for these gaps. Compliance remains weak, as the system continues to rely heavily on self-declaration, with few incentives for taxpayers to comply and little motivation for the centrally managed revenue administration to enforce collection, since property tax revenues primarily accrue to local governments (Nyirakamana et al., 2024). Property records are outdated, both in terms of addresses and taxable values, partly due to the cadastre-first approach, which requires properties to be legally registered with complete information – such as lot numbers and ownership details – before they can be taxed (Prichard et al., 2025). This is compounded by the absence of a consistent addressing system and unique property or taxpayer identifiers, as well as valuation methods that remain complex and inconsistently applied, resulting in an incomplete and obsolete valuation roll (Knebelmann, 2019). Coordination across institutions is also fragmented. The Directorate General of Taxes and Domains (DGID) is responsible for identifying and valuing properties and issuing tax notices, while the General Directorate of Public Accounting and the Treasury (DGCPT) handles billing, collection and enforcement. Revenues are transferred to municipal accounts and, under the General Local Government Code, are intended for essential local services. However, limited collaboration between the DGID, municipalities and the Treasury, alongside the use of separate and non-interoperable databases by the DGID and Treasury, continues to undermine coordination and constrain the overall performance of the property tax system (Knebelmann, 2019; Nyirakamana et al., 2024; Mukazayire et al., 2025b).

Summary of initiative

Since 2017, efforts to modernise Senegal’s property tax system – led by the DGID, a central agency under the Ministry of Finance – have focused on improving property registration and expanding the tax base by digitising key stages of the fiscal chain (Knebelmann, 2019; Prichard et al., 2025). Anchored in a cadastre-first approach to property taxation, which requires land to be legally registered and assigned parcel numbers linked to property owners before it becomes taxable (Prichard et al., 2025), the reform has followed a phased strategy to progressively update and extend the national cadastre. Initially rolled out and tested in the Dakar Region (Knebelmann et al., 2021a) the initiative now forms part of a wider national programme (Nyirakamana et al., 2024).

Between 2019 and 2023, three major programmes were launched to support these efforts. The Programme d’Amélioration de la Gestion des Contributions Foncières (Programme for the Improvement of Property Tax Management, PAGCF) conducted censuses in 26 municipalities in Dakar. The Programme d’Appui aux Communes et Agglomérations du Sénégal (Support Programme for Senegal's Communes and Agglomerations, PACASEN) extended this to 124 high-potential municipalities, including Dakar and regional capitals. And the ongoing Recensement National des Propriétés Immobilières (National Real Estate Property Census, RNPI), part of the Plan Yataal, aims to expand the property tax base nationwide, covering all departments not included in previous initiatives (Nyirakamana et al., 2024).

At the heart of these innovations is an investment in information technology designed to update the legal cadastre by collecting detailed property information and using this data to revise the fiscal cadastre through the identification of taxable properties and the estimation of the tax base (Nyirakamana et al., 2024). To this end, a new property tax management software has been introduced to support field data collection, automate tax calculations and generate tax notifications. The system features an Android-based tablet application integrating GPS and GIS technologies, which enables field agents to record key property details, such as location, cadastral ID, physical characteristics, estimated rental value, owner information and photographs. It automatically computes tax liabilities, updates the taxpayer database and produces geocoded tax notices, streamlining what was once a fragmented manual process (Knebelmann et al., 2021a).

A simplified valuation method has also been piloted and integrated into the property tax management software. Using a points-based formula, a streamlined version of a computer-assisted mass appraisal (CAMA) system, it relies on observable features, supported by satellite and drone imagery, to generate rental value estimates directly within the application, reducing reliance on spontaneous declarations or assessor discretion (Knebelmann and Pouliquen, 2021). These digital innovations, first tested in the Dakar Region, are supported by interoperable computer systems that strengthen interdepartmental coordination, facilitate monitoring of census activities, share information between the tax administration and the Treasury, and improve the processing of tax data (Nyirakamana et al., 2024).

Technical reforms have been complemented by public awareness and communication campaigns designed to inform citizens about property censuses and encourage participation. Using mass media, social platforms and in-person community engagement, the campaign has helped explain the reform process and its benefits (Mukazayire et al., 2025a). Messaging is delivered in both Wolof and French to ensure accessibility, while training for neighbourhood delegates fosters local ownership and encourages participation on the ground (Mukazayire et al, 2025a).

A phased intervention

Dakar’s property tax intervention followed a phased trajectory, beginning in 2017 with a diagnostic and design phase conducted with international researchers, which led to the development of a new property tax management system to address weaknesses in the existing framework and establish a sustainable, nationwide taxpayer registration process. The digitalisation initiative focuses on automating the fiscal chain to enhance data management, coordination and transparency. Over two years, the project team collaborated with the administration and a local IT firm to develop an Android and web-based application to streamline these processes.

In 2019, the system was piloted through a randomised controlled trial involving a large-scale census in 97 cadastral sections across the Dakar Region, with 97 comparable sections serving as control areas to assess impacts on tax assessment, payment and compliance (Knebelmann, 2019). In 2020, system refinements were undertaken and census work continued, although progress was temporarily slowed by the Covid-19 pandemic. The intervention regained momentum in May 2021, when the census resumed using the digital application, now integrated into the DGID’s internal systems (Knebelmann et al., 2021a). By July, the programme had entered its scaling phase.

With evidence that the technology effectively identified and registered property owners, the DGID expanded the approach nationwide through two additional projects – PACASEN and RNPI/RNBI. Property registration increased substantially: by the end of 2023, over 160,000 properties had been recorded, a threefold rise from the previous database of about 50,000 taxpayers, though the pace of registration – at around 40,000 properties per year – remains slow relative to the scale of the task (Prichard et al., 2025). In 2021, the government also launched Yaatal, a mass communication campaign to inform citizens about the census and encourage participation (Mukazayire et al., 2025a).

Agencies and financing

The PAGCF, which included the development of the property tax management software, was implemented by the DGID in collaboration with the Paris School of Economics and supported by multiple donors, including the Economic Development Institution, ICTD, IGC, the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab Digital Identification and Finance Initiative and the Fund for Innovation in Development (Knebelmann et al., 2021a; Prichard et al., 2025).

A dedicated pilot on semi-automated valuation, “Developing points-based valuation”, was launched in late 2018 with ICTD funding. The project supported the calibration of a valuation model using local data from Senegal and Sierra Leone (Knebelmann and Pouliquen, 2021).

The PACASEN was jointly financed by the World Bank, French Development Agency and Government of Senegal, and coordinated by the DGID’s Bureau for Local Authorities (BCT) in collaboration with local governments through Local Tax Commissions (CFL) (World Bank, 2024; Prichard et al., 2025).

The RNPI is supported by the national government and the African Development Bank (Prichard et al., 2025).

Target population, communities, constituents or "beneficiaries"

The census programmes initially aimed to identify up to one million properties nationwide, both formally registered and informally held (Nyirakamana et al., 2024), including an estimated 374,000 plots across the entire Dakar Region (Knebelmann et al., 2021b). By June 2024, after nearly four years of implementation, over 200,000 properties had been registered – a fourfold increase from the DGID’s original database of about 50,000 property taxpayers nationwide. However, the registration rate of roughly 45,000 properties per year remains modest compared to cases such as Freetown, where more than 100,000 properties were recorded within just six months.

The broader expectation is that these property identification and registration reforms, designed to boost local government property tax revenues and unlock land-based wealth, will ultimately improve the delivery of public services and infrastructure (Barras et al., 2024) as an expanded property tax base is expected to enhance the fiscal capacity of communes (local governments) with revenues deposited into local accounts and, under the Code Général des Collectivités Locales, allocated to essential services and infrastructure.