Richardson said sub-Saharan countries which included Malawi managed to recover quickly after the 2008 global downturn because they had pursued good macro-economic policies.
 
“Generally to further growth, economies must export more and governments on the continent must put in a lot of effort to achieve this. On a larger picture domestic savings must be encouraged to invest in high income avenues,” Richardson said.
 
The IMF also emphasized that supplementary budgets by governments are detrimental and a sign of lack of proper planning which usually costs economies highly
 
He said based on IMF projections many African countries can achieve significant changes if economies can grow between 10 to 12 percent.
 
“If this can be achieved then such countries can become mid earning economies in 10 to 20 years but the way things are that status can be done in 30 years or more,” Richardson said.
 
On revenue collection, Richardson said governments must seriously consider doing away with tax exemptions and bring in big firms disguising as informal sector.
 
“If the economy is performing better governments will not need tax exemption to get investors in as they will flock in numbers because it’s always better to collect such revenue and direct it appropriately to development projects.
 
“For the informal sector, there are many that would not want to pay taxes and they don’t register or under-declare earnings but all this can be sorted with robust national identification structures linked to tax payment systems which lead to maximum revenue collection,” the IMF chief said 
 
Earlier in the week Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) Commissioner General Allen Kagina said most African countries have challenges to collect tax. “In our case 40 percent of the economy is informal and trade is easily done in cash so tracing taxes and revenue is very hard,” Kagina said.