FG urges stronger West African tax collaboration, calls for benchmarking tools
Abdullateef Fowewe
Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, has urged stronger regional cooperation to bolster tax administration reforms and increase domestic revenue mobilisation across West Africa.
The call came on Tuesday during a courtesy visit to the Federal Ministry of Finance by a delegation from the West African Tax Administration Forum (WATAF), led by its Executive Secretary, Jules Tapsoba Sulio.
Mary-Ann Duke Okon, Senior Special Assistant, Communications & Press Secretary to the Minister, revealed the meeting outcome in a statement on Tuesday.
Welcoming the WATAF team, Oyedele praised the Forum’s progress since its 2011 founding and acknowledged its role in building “stronger and more resilient tax administrations across the region.”
He urged WATAF to take a more active monitoring role in implementing regional tax agreements by developing practical benchmarking tools and performance dashboards to assess member states’ compliance with ECOWAS tax directives.
“Such tools would promote accountability, encourage peer learning, and help raise tax administration standards across West Africa,” the Minister said in the statement.
Oyedele also encouraged WATAF to expand benchmarking efforts to identify and showcase best practices in areas including digitalisation, taxation of the informal sector, and broader tax policy reforms, so member countries can learn from one another and accelerate reforms.
WATAF’s Executive Secretary, Jules Tapsoba Sulio, congratulated Oyedele on his appointment and reiterated the Forum’s commitment to supporting Nigeria and other member states through capacity building, technical assistance, research, digital transformation, and regional cooperation.
He also thanked Nigeria for its “financial, institutional, and technical contributions,” which he said have been instrumental to WATAF’s growth and success.
The meeting explored opportunities for deeper collaboration between the Federal Ministry of Finance and WATAF aimed at advancing domestic revenue mobilisation, regional tax harmonisation, digital transformation, and capacity development across West Africa.
