17/01/2024 – Zambia has joined the international fight against tax evasion as 171^st member – and 39^th African member – of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (Global Forum). Zambia is the sixth African country to join the Global Forum in the past eighteen months, following the Republic of the Congo (June 2022), Angola (March 2023), Zimbabwe (April 2023), Sierra Leone (May 2023) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (December 2023).

Like all other members, Zambia 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).

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

"We are very pleased to welcome Zambia as the latest Global Forum member," said Gaël Perraud, Chair of the Global Forum. "Zambia’s decision underlines the growing resolve of African governments to actively weigh in, and ultimately benefit from, the international collaboration in the fight against tax evasion and avoidance."

Zambia 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 transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes. The latest progress report Tax Transparency in Africa 2023 highlights the Initiative’s relevance and major successes 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.