The Economic Community of West African States on Thursday called on tax agencies in Nigeria and other countries within the region to focus on domestic revenue mobilisation to be able to tackle current realities.

The ECOWAS Director (Trade, Customs Union), Tiemtore Salifou, stated this in Abuja at the opening session of the first major stakeholders meeting of the Support Programme for Tax Transition in West Africa.

He said, “We must share experiences and move towards moving tax revenue and ensure that international tax standards are implemented.

“The management of Value Added Tax expenditure and tax reforms in Nigeria and Liberia will be discussed here and we will discuss how to manage expenditure under a tax regime.”

The Director of Fiscal Affairs and Public Finance at WAEMU, Habbas Traoure, said the workshop would help the regions fight domestic tax evasion and drive revenue mobilisation and fight illicit tax flows.

He said, “This will help us develop capacity to do well in this area of tax evasion. We have had study on VAT and the ECOWAS commission is proud of the result achieved so far and this seminar is a prove to show that we are on the right track.”

He added that the meeting would help review what had been done and help the actors to brainstorm on the measures to be put in place to address issues affecting taxation in the region.