The Federal Government has called for stronger tax reforms across West Africa to improve compliance with regional tax agreements and strengthen revenue generation among member states.
It also urged the adoption of practical measures to monitor countries’ compliance with ECOWAS tax directives, saying stronger oversight and the sharing of best practices would help improve tax administration across the region.
The call was made by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, during a courtesy visit by a delegation from the West African Tax Administration Forum (WATAF), led by its Executive Secretary, Jules Tapsoba Sulio, at the Federal Ministry of Finance headquarters in Abuja.
Oyedele urged WATAF to take a more active role in tracking the implementation of regional tax agreements by developing benchmarking tools and performance dashboards to assess member states’ compliance with ECOWAS tax directives.
He said the tools would promote accountability, encourage peer learning and help improve tax administration standards across West Africa.
The minister also called on the forum to identify and promote best practices in key areas of tax administration, including digitalisation, taxation of the informal sector and broader tax policy reforms to enable member countries to learn from one another and accelerate reforms.
Earlier, Sulio congratulated Oyedele on his appointment and reaffirmed WATAF’s commitment to supporting Nigeria and other member countries through capacity building, technical assistance, research, digital transformation and regional cooperation.
He also commended Nigeria for its longstanding financial, institutional and technical support to the forum, describing the country’s contributions as instrumental to WATAF’s growth and success.
The meeting also explored ways to strengthen collaboration between the Federal Ministry of Finance and WATAF in advancing tax reforms, regional tax harmonisation, digital transformation and capacity development across West Africa.