the belief that refuses to die
There's a belief that refuses to die among foreign software companies: no local entity, no local tax. It was never really true, and African tax authorities have spent the last decade making it emphatically false. Most major markets on the continent now run destination-based VAT on digital services, with registration regimes built specifically for non-resident suppliers. Translation: the customer's location creates the tax, not yours, and there's a form with your name on it.
The regimes share a family resemblance. A definition of electronic or digital services broad enough to catch SaaS, streaming, e-learning and app stores. A registration path for foreign suppliers, often simplified, often with no minimum threshold at all. Liability that sits with you for consumer sales, sometimes shifting to the customer via reverse charge for business sales. And increasingly, e-invoicing systems that plug you straight into the revenue authority's machinery.
Here's the map as it stands in July 2026. And I'd flag upfront: three of these six regimes changed within the past year. That's the other thing about this map. It moves.
south africa
South Africa. Taxing electronic services from foreign suppliers since 2014, with one of the broader definitions anywhere after the 2019 rewrite. VAT is 15%, and yes, it's still 15%: the increase announced in the 2025 budget was reversed within weeks after a political standoff, which tells you something about how hard rates are to move here. Registration kicks in at R1 million of supplies in twelve months, rising to R2.3 million from 1 April 2026. The interesting recent change is a B2B carve-out: from April 2025, a foreign supplier selling exclusively to VAT-registered South African businesses falls outside the regime entirely. Note the word exclusively. It's all or nothing, and one sale to a consumer or an unregistered business collapses the exclusion. For a subscription business selling to individuals, assume you're in.
kenya
Kenya. VAT at 16% on digital supplies to Kenyan customers, with a simplified online registration for non-residents and no threshold at all: the first shilling is taxable. Consumer sales have been caught since 2021, and since mid-2022 business sales are too, because Kenya withdrew the reverse charge option for non-resident digital suppliers, which is unusual and worth knowing. Returns are monthly. Kenya also taxes non-resident digital income separately: the old digital service tax was replaced from the end of 2024 by a significant economic presence tax at an effective 3% of gross turnover. And the KRA's eTIMS e-invoicing system keeps tightening the net around digital transactions generally. Kenya is not a market where quiet non-compliance ages well.
ghana
Ghana. Fully overhauled from 1 January 2026 under a new VAT Act. The old stack of levies that pushed the effective rate to roughly 22% is gone: the COVID levy is abolished, and the health and education levies have been folded back into the VAT base, landing the effective rate at 20% on a much cleaner structure. The registration threshold for goods jumped to GH¢750,000, but here's the part that matters for software: under the new Act, suppliers of services face registration regardless of turnover. The GRA runs a dedicated portal for non-resident registration and payment, and the E-VAT electronic invoicing rollout continues, alongside announced measures aimed squarely at cross-border digital collection.
mauritius
Mauritius. The newest member of the club. From 1 January 2026, under the Finance Act 2025, foreign suppliers of digital and electronic services must register and charge 15% VAT on supplies to customers in Mauritius, regardless of turnover. Business customers are generally handled through the reverse charge, so the practical weight falls on consumer sales. Returns run monthly or quarterly. For a small market, Mauritius moved fast and cleanly, and given how much digital consumption routes through the island, don't let its size fool you into ignoring it.
rwanda
Rwanda. The freshest ink on the map. A ministerial order gazetted on 29 April 2026 brought online goods and digital services from non-resident suppliers into the 18% VAT net, with a three-month window to register or appoint a local representative that closes at the end of July 2026. The enforcement design is the clever part: if a foreign supplier doesn't register, the financial institutions processing the payments must withhold the VAT instead. You comply, or the payment rail complies for you. A separate 1.5% digital service tax on the income side has been legislated and sits pending implementation. Rwanda already runs one of the most mature electronic invoicing regimes in Africa, so expect the administration of this to be competent.
nigeria
Nigeria deserves a mention even though it's not in our first wave. The country consolidated its entire tax code in 2025, effective January 2026, and the new framework squarely obliges non-resident digital suppliers to register, charge 7.5% VAT and remit to the new national revenue service, with a reverse charge for business sales, mandatory e-invoicing, and the power to appoint platforms and marketplaces as collection agents for the full transaction value. The rate is low by continental standards. The enforcement appetite is not.
the cost of doing nothing
Two things about non-compliance. First, it compounds quietly: authorities can assess backwards, and the bill arrives with penalties and interest attached at the worst possible moment, typically during a funding round or a banking onboarding when someone competent finally reads your flows. Second, the ecosystem increasingly does the enforcement for the authorities. Rwanda deputising the payment rails is the loudest example, but banks, acquirers and platforms everywhere now ask about your tax position before they'll touch your money.
the merchant of record angle
The merchant of record angle here is straightforward and I won't pretend to be neutral about it. When an MoR is the legal seller in-market, the VAT obligation is the MoR's: its registrations, its invoices, its filings, its audit trail, and its job to track the next reform so you don't have to. One commercial contract replaces a shelf of foreign registrations. Whether you solve this with an MoR or with six registrations and a good advisor, solve it deliberately, because this is not the kind of debt you want accruing silently underneath a growth story.
One housekeeping note: this is a map, not advice. It reflects the position in July 2026, rates and thresholds shift, and your facts matter. Get proper advice on your own flows, or work with someone whose entire job is carrying this for you.