AFRICAN COUNTRIES

With just about two months before the 2022 FIFA World Cup begins in Qatar, calls have mounted for African countries to seek justice for their citizens who have worked in Qatar’s construction and tourism sectors under abusive working conditions.

The tournament which brings together some of the world’s best football talent takes place between 20 November and 18 December, while thousands of African and Asian workers in Qatar allege that they have experienced abusive practices in Qatar’s construction and tourism sectors linked to the World Cup.

Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International, and other human rights groups have documented abuses such as wage theft, injuries, and unexplained deaths.

One distressing story is that of Samuel Alabi Ago, a failed footballer from Ghana, who is featured in the documentary film The Workers’ World Cup directed by Adam Sobel and produced by Ramzy Haddad and Rosie Garthwaite.

Ago is back home in Ghana after developing pain from using heavy construction machinery and he, like many others, was not compensated for injuries sustained at work.

Then there’s the story of Malcolm Bidali, who upon raising concern about gross abuses in working camps, was taken into solitary confinement by Qatari state security agents on 4 May last year.

His issues raised the alarm on gross human rights violations happening in Qatar.

Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda have the largest contingent of Africans working to make the World Cup a memorable showcase.

In a recent survey by Amnesty International, called YouGov, 93% of respondents interviewed in Kenya agreed that FIFA should provide a remedy for labour abuses behind the World Cup build-up.

The majority in 15 countries where the survey was conducted overwhelmingly want FIFA, with the help of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), to come up with a fund of at least R7.8 billion for reparations.

This figure is relatively small compared to the estimated R102 billion in profit FIFA is expected to make at the World Cup.

“Supporters don’t want a World Cup that’s indelibly tainted by human rights abuses,” said Steven Cockburn, Amnesty’s head of economic and social justice in a statement.

“The past cannot be undone, but a compensation programme is a clear and simple way that FIFA and Qatar can provide at least some measure of redress to the hundreds of thousands of workers who made this tournament possible”.

Ghana, Senegal, Tunisia, Cameroon, and Morocco are the African countries that will take part in the World Cup.

Most of them have sizable numbers of people working in Qatar for the World Cup and HRW has written to their football governing bodies to publicly speak out against the abuse of workers in Qatar, but none has done so as yet.

However, in an unprecedented move, major World Cup sponsor corporations such as Adidas, Budweiser, Coca-Cola, and McDonald’s put out statements in agreement with the HRW-backed #PayUpFIFA initiative.

Adidas was the first to openly speak out and offer its unwavering support for justice to be served.

“Although Adidas was not involved in the decision to award the World Cup to Qatar, we have been working with partners to improve the human rights situation in recent years,” stated William Anderson, Adidas vice-president of global, social and environmental affairs.

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“We are supportive of FIFA continuing its close engagement with the advocacy community and with the Building and Wood Workers International (BWI) – the global union that represents the construction industry – to address, together with Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, all and any worker rights issues arising out of the hosting of the 2022 World Cup, including required actions for remediation and, where appropriate, due compensation for workers and their families with unresolved grievances.”

At a press briefing on 20 September, Craig Foster, a retired Australian footballer, announced that he would donate his salary as a broadcaster at the World Cup to families of deceased workers, as well as to LGBTQIA and women’s rights groups in Qatar.

Source: News24

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has called for improved collaboration among countries with the aim of exploring alternative rules that will enable market jurisdictions, particularly African countries to effectively tax digital businesses.

This was stated during a presentation by the Executive Chairman of the FIRS, Muhammad Nami last Friday at a Technical Assistance Programme organized by African Tax Administrators’ Forum’s (ATAF) with the theme “Member’s Needs and How To Broaden the Collaboration,” held in Lomé, Togo.

Mr. Nami noted that although some African countries had endorsed the Or ganization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Inclusive Framework’s global solution on the tax challenges of the digitalized economy, Nigeria continues to maintain its position that the outcome will not be favorable to African countries.

According to him, “Nigeria continues to hold the view that the outcome will produce very minimal revenue comfort for African countries. This is instructive considering the implementation challenges that developing jurisdictions will face due to the complexity of the Pilar 1 and 2 rules.”

The OECD’s new tax deal set out in 2021 has two pillars. The first pillar says that if a company has a global turnover of more than 20 billion euros and a profit margin of more than 10 percent, then 20-30 percent of the profit in excess of 10 percent of revenue will be allocated to market jurisdictions using a revenue-based allocation key.

The second pillar sets a global minimum tax rate of (at least) 15%.

“Our analysis continues to show that the possible cost of administering and implementing the complex rules will far outweigh the expected revenue accruing from its implementation,” Mr. Nami said.

“I therefore urge the African Tax Administrators Forum to join the discussion at the UN Tax Committee of Experts, South Centre, as well as collaborate with all other well-meaning stakeholders to explore alternative rules that will enable African countries to effectively subject the digital businesses and base eroding payments to tax in our jurisdictions.

“These collaborations should extend to other rules developed and implemented at the international level for the taxation of Multinational Enterprises, such as the tax treaty, exchange of information and transfer pricing rules.” Mr. Nami stated.

He further called for the African Tax Administrators Forum to collaborate with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to explore opportunities for Africa within the programme’s Tax for Sustainable Development Goals Initiative, to ensure that African countries are able to generate appreciable revenue to fund the Sustainable Development Goals.

While discussing the needs of the West African region that require Technical Assistance of ATAF, the chairman of FIRS noted that there was need for capacity building of members in respect of Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Actions by Multinational Corporations, as well as on the taxation of the digital economy.

“It is crucial for the ATAF Technical Assistance to look towards improving the capacity of member country’s tax administration, through the digitisation of operations. Also, critically needed by tax authorities in the West African region is the development of Data Analytics intelligence expertise and the use of research tools that are required for taxation in a modern economy,” he highlighted.

Mr. Nami further urged the African Tax Administrators Forum to organise peer-to-peer knowledge sharing sessions between beneficiaries of the Technical Assistance programmes, while also intensifying on its technical assistance on international tax rules, particularly in the areas of tax treaties, transfer pricing, and exchange of information.

The African Tax Administrators Forum Technical Assistance (ATAF-TA) Programme aims at helping members build sustainable and efficient tax systems while achieving its strategic plans to increase domestic resource mobilisation, target the development of African expertise and support Africa’s effective voice in the international tax environment.

Source: premium times

African countries urged to speak out against worker abuse ahead of Qatar World Cup

ALSO READ: As COP27 looms, Africa receives a 10th of climate financing it needs

FIRS seeks collaboration within African countries to effectively tax digital businesses