Keen and Mansour (ibid.) exploited new data that, for the first time, makes the crucial distinction between regular corporate income taxes and resource-related tax revenues. The resource income includes revenues from upstream exploration-to-processing activities in oil, gas and mining, i.e. principally royalties and corporate income taxes on resource extraction activities. Figure 15 focuses on resource-related tax revenues. The surge in this type of tax revenue on the continent is striking. On average, resource-related tax revenues nearly tripled in Africa as a share of national income between the late 1990s and the start of the financial crisis. Since, they have retreated slightly back to around 15% of GDP on average. This is still a very high percentage and this average hides some spectacular numbers in countries like 66% in Libya and 39% in Angola.

The recovery of crude oil prices since 2009 is expected to have contributed to a pick-up in resource-related tax revenues as a share of GDP from its lows in Figure 15. It should be stressed that resource-related tax revenues may be expected to rise further. As the International Finance Corporation (2009) reported, “there is an urgent need for mineral abundant states to enter into a renegotiation of mining contracts when they are unfavourable” with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) designated as the appropriate go-between institution.