The Director of the Intergovernmental Group of Twenty-Four on International Monetary Affairs and Development, Iyabo Masha, on Saturday said ongoing tax reforms would support Nigeria’s transition into a modern and more efficient economy, as she outlined the agenda for the G-24 2026 Technical Group Meeting scheduled to hold in Abuja from February 18 to 20.

Masha, who is the first African to occupy the position since the establishment of the G-24 over five decades ago, spoke at a press conference in Abuja ahead of the meeting themed, “Mobilising Finance to Promote Sustainable, Inclusive, and Job-Rich Economic Transformation”.

She said tax and domestic resource mobilisation remain central to development, stressing that Nigeria’s reform drive could deepen formalisation and strengthen public finances over time.

“Tax and domestic resource mobilisation are fundamental to economic development,” she said, noting that taxation enables governments to provide infrastructure, education, healthcare, and maintain law and order.

According to her, governments generally finance development through taxation, borrowing, or asset sales, but “out of all of these, taxation is the most efficient one that leads to the least macroeconomic destabilisation”.

She observed that developing countries often record weak tax mobilisation, “in some cases as low as 7 per cent of GDP”, compared to others that generate “25, 30 per cent of GDP”. Countries able to sustain services and stability, she added, tend to have tax-to-GDP ratios “in the 20s, 25, 26, or thereabouts”.

Speaking on Nigeria’s reforms, Masha said that in her previous role, she had examined the country’s tax framework and found it “very fragmented”, with inadequate implementation contributing to low revenue mobilisation.

“My understanding is that this new tax policy seeks to address all those issues. It is bringing more companies into the tax net. It is reducing some rates of taxation, though it is also increasing some rates of taxation,” she said.

She noted that certain capital taxation measures were “very interesting” and could incentivise more efficient production.

Masha said that while reforms may be painful initially, they would yield long-term gains. “It will be painful in the initial period. But over time, it would allow the Nigerian economy to transition into a real modern economy that will be able to meet the aspirations of its people”, she said.

She noted that reforms could encourage more firms to formalise operations and potentially expand employment.

Providing background on the G-24, Masha said the group was founded during a turbulent period in global economics marked by weaknesses in the international financial architecture and trade disruptions that adversely affected developing countries.

“The whole idea of forming the G-24 was to form a representative organisation of the largest economies in the Global South and have them be the voice of the Global South when it comes to negotiating and discussing with the advanced economies,” she said.

She highlighted exchange-rate spillovers as a key concern, noting, “The world is a dollar world.” She said developing countries also rely heavily on external financing, often from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, because their domestic capital markets are underdeveloped.

The G-24, which has 29 member countries and several observers, including multilateral institutions, is headquartered in Washington, DC, and holds ministerial-level meetings twice yearly on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank meetings.

Masha explained that the Technical Group Meeting allows members to align positions ahead of those engagements.

Hosting rotates among member states, and she confirmed that “Nigeria is the chair country for this year”.

She said about 45 delegates had confirmed attendance, with additional participation expected from relevant Nigerian agencies.

The meeting is being hosted by the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Nigeria.

The programme will feature five panels, including one marking 80 years of the Bretton Woods institutions, which will assess achievements and future reforms of the IMF and World Bank.

Another panel will examine digital services taxation and domestic resource mobilisation, including how governments can better tax global technology firms.

“More importantly, on how countries can better tax the likes of Google, the likes of Facebook,” she said, noting that such companies often operate without physical presence in markets where they generate revenue.

Climate change and energy transition will also feature prominently. Masha said oil-exporting developing countries face a complex balancing act. “Oil extractive industries are major sources of revenue, employment, and jobs in these countries. But on the other hand, they are now looking at how to move away from that and use more environmentally friendly sources of energy,” she said.

Other sessions will focus on financial inclusion and monetary stability, as well as regional trade and integration. On inclusion, she noted that digitalisation had helped some countries lift financial access rates from about 40 per cent to as high as “60, 70, 80, 90 per cent”, but warned that rapid expansion of digital finance also poses challenges for central banks’ mandates on stability.

Addressing regional integration, she said political tensions in West Africa should not derail economic cooperation. “There’s political fragmentation in West Africa, but it shouldn’t really stop economic cooperation,” she said.

She argued that stronger regional trade could allow local producers to meet that demand.

Regarding debt sustainability, she acknowledged rising debt-servicing pressures, especially since the pandemic, but pointed to the G20-backed Common Framework for restructuring. She said countries could use the framework to renegotiate external obligations and ease fiscal strain.

“The important thing is for countries to manage their debt in a very sustainable way so that they don’t find themselves in a hard spot,” she said.

Responding to a question on artificial intelligence and digital transformation, Masha said technological change could reshape global productivity and employment within the next decade.

She warned against widening inequality between advanced and developing countries and called for global agreements on data protocols, privacy rights and intergovernmental cooperation.

The Intergovernmental Group of Twenty-Four on International Monetary Affairs and Development brings together developing and emerging economies across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Some member countries include Nigeria, South Africa, Ethiopia, and Côte d’Ivoire from Africa; India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines from Asia; and Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Guatemala, and Mexico from Latin America and the Caribbean.

In total, the bloc currently has 29 member countries that coordinate positions on global monetary, financial and development issues.