LAGOS – The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Taiwo Oyedele, has called for stronger collaboration among West African countries to improve tax administration, boost revenue generation and ensure effective implementation of ECOWAS tax directives.
Oyedele made the call in Abuja while receiving 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.
According to a statement issued by the Minister’s Senior Special Assistant on Communications and Press, Mary-Ann Duke Okon, Oyedele commended WATAF for strengthening tax administration across the region since its establishment in 2011.
He urged the organisation to take a more proactive role by developing practical benchmarking tools and performance dashboards to monitor how member states comply with ECOWAS tax agreements.
The minister said such measures would improve accountability, encourage healthy competition among member countries and raise tax administration standards across West Africa.
Oyedele also encouraged WATAF to document and share successful tax administration models in areas such as digital taxation, taxation of the informal sector and broader tax policy reforms to help member nations accelerate their revenue reforms.
He stressed that stronger regional cooperation would enhance domestic revenue mobilisation and support sustainable economic growth across the sub-region.
Earlier, WATAF Executive Secretary, Jules Tapsoba Sulio, congratulated Oyedele on his appointment and reaffirmed the forum’s commitment to supporting Nigeria and other member countries through technical assistance, capacity building, research, digital transformation and regional cooperation.
Sulio also commended Nigeria for its longstanding financial, institutional and technical support to WATAF, describing the country’s contributions as vital to the organisation’s growth and success.
Both parties also explored areas of deeper collaboration aimed at strengthening domestic revenue generation, harmonising tax systems, expanding digital transformation and building the capacity of tax administrators across West Africa.
