Rwanda Revenue Authority

Alongside that vision came a deliberate push to build a domestic tax system.

To make that possible the country established the Rwanda Revenue Authority in 1997 which quickly became one of the more professionalised tax agencies in the region.

As a result tax revenue as a share of GDP rose from under 10% in the late 1990s to roughly 14-16% in recent years.

That might not sound extraordinary by European standards, but in sub-Saharan Africa it places Rwanda among the stronger performers, and that progress translated directly into fiscal independence.