The 6th open meeting of LPSA’s Thematic Working Group on Subnational Finance was held on February 5, 2025. The session, moderated by Dr Titilola Akindeinde, Executive Director of the Local Government Revenue Initiative (LoGRI) and Co-Chair of the Working Group, focused on leveraging property taxation to enhance land management and sustainability.
Gundula Loeffler, Co-Chair of the Working Group, opened the meeting by reviewing the group’s activities over the past year and outlining the agenda for the year ahead. Following this, Dr Titilola Akindeinde led a discussion on the connection between property taxation and land administration systems, featuring presentations by Dr Colette Nyirakamana and Jean-Claude Mondo.
Dr Colette Nyirakamana, Research Lead at the Local Government Revenue Initiative (LoGRI) and Senior Research Associate at the University of Toronto examined the challenges facing property tax and land administrations and how collaboration between the two could address them. She highlighted how incomplete property maps contribute to unfair taxation and revenue losses. She pointed out that in many low-income countries, the traditional “cadastral-first” approach—requiring properties to be mapped and titled before taxation—has proven ineffective due to its high costs, complexity, and slow implementation. A key challenge is the fragmented nature of GIS mapping efforts, which are often donor-funded and result in uncoordinated, incomplete land data spread across various government departments.
To address these issues, she proposed a cross-government approach to GIS mapping, where multiple agencies collaborate to develop and share high-quality property data. This would lower costs and improve efficiency. She also introduced the “property tax-first” approach, which allows for taxation even in the absence of formal property registration. This method has been successfully implemented in countries such as Uganda, Ghana, and Sierra Leone, creating stronger incentives for property owners to register their land while giving tax authorities greater autonomy to update property records.
Additionally, she emphasized the importance of effective data-sharing mechanisms, where field updates from property tax authorities can support land administrations in maintaining more accurate records. In conclusion, she argued that strengthening collaboration between these government functions can enhance tax compliance, improve land governance, and create a more equitable and efficient property taxation system.
Jean-Claude Mondo, Head of the Tax Cadastre and Research Officer in the Division of Studies, Planning, and Tax Reforms at the Directorate General of Taxes, Ministry of Finance, discussed the practical implementation of integrating property taxation with land administration in Cameroon. He highlighted that land management involves multiple institutions—including the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Domain, Surveys, and Land Affairs, and local councils—each operating with different priorities and data systems. This institutional fragmentation makes coordination a major challenge.
One of the key issues he identified is that only 10–50% of land in Cameroon is officially registered, yet tax authorities require complete and accurate data to ensure fair and efficient property taxation. To address this gap, a centralized land data collection system was developed, consolidating information from key institutions with support from international donors and the government. However, the initial efforts primarily focused on registered landowners, leaving approximately 85% of potential taxpayers unidentified.
To bridge this gap, tax authorities expanded their data sources by partnering with utility companies and traditional rulers, as services like electricity and water require property-related information. Legal provisions were introduced to mandate the automatic transmission of such data to tax authorities, significantly improving the accuracy and completeness of taxpayer records. This approach led to a substantial increase in registered property owners—from 20,000 to 125,000 through land administration efforts. Further collaboration with utility companies expanded this number to 740,000, demonstrating the effectiveness of cross-sector data sharing. The ultimate goal is to register 2 million property owners in the coming years, ensuring a more comprehensive, transparent, and equitable property taxation system.
During the Q&A session, two critical questions were raised about property tax challenges in low-income countries: high noncompliance rates and the high costs of tax collection. It was suggested that land administration systems could be leveraged to improve enforcement and that shifting property taxes from owners to occupants could enhance local engagement. The importance of comprehensive tax reforms was emphasized, particularly concerning better identification and valuation systems, though challenges with incomplete land records were acknowledged. The discussion also focused on property taxation in rural and peri-urban areas, especially those under customary law. It was noted that urban sprawl in cities has led to the levying of property taxes in once-rural areas, even if administrative boundaries have not officially changed. The need for legislation and collaboration with customary authorities when taxing properties on customary land was highlighted, with an emphasis on ensuring that any taxation is politically and socially sensitive. The complexities of property tax collection efficiency were also discussed, with one country facing significant non-compliance due to a lack of information. Finally, the conversation touched on the politics of property taxation in decentralized systems and the need for improved data-sharing mechanisms between local and central governments.
Titilola concluded the meeting and announced the next open meeting of the Thematic Working Group on Subnational Finance for June 4th, 2025.
A video of the meeting is available on YouTube. The links below provide access to the video segments of the different agenda items.
| Agenda Item | Contributor | Slides |
| 1. Welcome and Introduction | Dr. Titilola Akindeinde Executive Director, Local Government Revenue Initiative (LoGRI) & Co-Chair LPSA Thematic Working Group on Subnational Finance | N/A |
| 2. Achieving Mutual Benefits by Linking Land Administration and Property Tax Administration | Dr. Colette Nyirakamana Research Lead, Local Government Revenue Initiative (LoGRI) & Senior Research Associate, University of Toronto | View |
| 3. Linking Property Tax with Land Administration: Cameroon’s Experience | Jean-Claude Mondo Head of the Tax Cadastre and Research Officer, Division of Studies, Planning and Tax Reforms, Directorate General of Taxes / Ministry of Finance | View |
| 4. Q&A | Dr. Titilola Akindeinde Moderator | N/A |
| 5. Closing Remarks | Dr. Titilola Akindeinde Moderator |
We need your help to make this meeting a success: If you have any updates about fiscal decentralization or subnational financial management in your country; updates about new research; or information about multilevel government finance and intergovernmental fiscal relations that you would like to mention during the open meeting, please email the Working Group co-chairs at finance@decentralization.net. so that a brief announcement can be made at the beginning of the meeting.
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