15/05/2023 – Sierra Leone has joined the international fight against tax evasion as 168^th member – and 37^th African member – of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (Global Forum). Sierra Leone is the fourth consecutive African country to join the Global Forum, following the Republic of the Congo (June 2022), Angola (March 2023) and Zimbabwe (April 2023).

"We are very pleased to welcome Sierra Leone as the latest Global Forum member," said Gaël Perraud, Chair of the Global Forum. "Our ever-growing reach shows the continuous attention given to tax transparency by the international community and demonstrates the resolve of governments to collaborate in the fight against tax evasion and avoidance."

Members of the Global Forum include all G20 countries, all OECD members, all international financial centres and a large share of developing countries.

Like all other members, Sierra Leone will participate on an equal footing and is committed to combatting offshore tax evasion through the implementation of the internationally agreed standards of exchange of information on request (EOIR) and automatic exchange of financial account information (AEOI).

Sierra Leone will also join the Africa Initiative, a programme of work launched in 2014 to support domestic revenue mobilisation and the fight against illicit financial flows in Africa through enhanced tax transparency and exchange of information. The latest progress report Tax Transparency in Africa 2022 highlights the Initiative’s relevance and major achievements to date.

The Global Forum is the leading multilateral body mandated to ensure that jurisdictions around the world adhere to and effectively implement both the exchange of information on request standard and the standard of automatic exchange of information. These objectives are achieved through a robust monitoring and peer review process. The Global Forum also runs an extensive capacity-building programme to support its members in implementing the standards and help tax authorities make the best use of cross-border information sharing channels.

For more information, please contact gftaxcooperation@oecd.org.