THE International Centre for Tax and Development (ICTD) has expressed concern over the unequal distribution of wealth from natural resource investments in Africa.

ICTD chief executive and co-founder Mick Moore observed that there was an enormous amount of exploration and development of minerals in Africa, and the awareness that mining companies are often paying trivial amounts of money to the public exchequer in return for a massive exploitation of minerals which was something that really irritated people.

Mr Moore noted that many countries have used tax incentives and exemptions to attract foreign investment, particularly to areas considered unfeasible for investment. He however said that, recent studies in Africa have revealed that these result in revenue losses and undermined the efforts of developing countries to fight poverty.

It is for this reason that ICTD in partnership with the Institute for Security Studies would be hosting a lecture entitled Mining Taxation in Zambia and Tanzania.

The lecture would be presented by Olav Lundstol, who would discuss key characteristics of the resource management regimes in Tanzania and Zambia, highlighting the lessons that other developing countries could learn from the examples of the mining sector in the two countries.

Mr Lundstol is a development economist specialising in extractive resource revenue management.

He has done extensive work in Africa and was currently a country economist at the Norwegian Embassy in Tanzania.

The lecture is part of the ICTD's programme for its 2012 Annual Centre Meeting, which brings together tax experts, administrators and policy makers from Africa and abroad.