One Company’s Tax ‘Heaven’ Is Senegal’s Tax ‘Hell’

A lopsided treaty between Mauritius and Senegal means, with the right paperwork, companies working in Senegal can avoid paying millions in taxes. 

One of the world’s largest engineering companies scored a $50 million deal to build a processing plant in Senegal, one of the world’s poorest countries, it looked to a tiny Indian Ocean island for help. That island, Mauritius, has an established banking system, a level of political stability unusual across Africa and well-trained workforce. It is also a renowned tax haven. And Mauritius offered engineering company SNC-Lavalin a significant benefit: a lopsided treaty signed with Senegal that, with the right paperwork, made it easy for the Canadian firm to avoid up to $8.9 million in taxes.

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Originally published on ICIJ

WAPSN Workshop: New Thinking on West African Security Challenges

The West Africa Peace and Security Network’s annual workshop “New Thinking on West African Security Challenges” will be held at the University of Portsmouth on the 17th-18th of May 2018. The workshop will discuss new approaches on security challenges in West Africa including highly relevant topics such as the role of foreign powers for West African peace and security; the AU and ECOWAS’ approaches to address peace and security on the continent; non-state actors, violent extremism, security and knowledge production in West Africa. Participants include academics and experts from West Africa, the UK and Europe.

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For more details, please see the workshop programme on the WAPSN website http://www.westafricasecuritynetwork.org/events/forthcoming/