A mayor is reforming Sierra Leone’s rotten property tax

WHEN ASKEDGDP why she wanted to be mayor of Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr answers without hesitation: “My heart was breaking at what the city was becoming.” In her two years a lot has improved. Gutters have been dug in flood-prone districts. Dustbins have proliferated throughout the city. Grass is sprouting from a roundabout once strewn with litter. But there is still much to do. Electricity flickers. Taps run dry. Rubbish heaps bigger than football fields still fester.Last year the cash-strapped city council got around 70% of its budget from foreign donors. The mayor is revamping property taxes, which she hopes will bring in five times more revenue this year. Not only does she want the rich to cough up more, she also wants payments to go directly into the bank, rather than be paid in cash. These are big reforms on a continent where property taxes bring in less than 0.4% of , compared with about 2% in the rich world.