Abuja, NIGERIA – Nigeria’s Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Taiwo Oyedele, has called on the West African Tax Administration Forum (WATAF) to develop practical benchmarking tools and performance dashboards to track member states’ compliance with ECOWAS tax directives.
The minister made the call on Tuesday, July 14, 2026, during a high-level courtesy visit by a delegation from WATAF, led by its Executive Secretary, Jules Tapsoba Sulio, at the Ministry of Finance Headquarters in Abuja. Okay News reports that the meeting focused on driving regional tax harmonization, accelerating the digitalization of tax systems, and strengthening domestic revenue mobilization across the West African sub-region.
While commending WATAF for its institutional progress since its establishment in 2011, Taiwo Oyedele challenged the forum to transition into a more active supervisory role. He urged the body to design data-driven performance dashboards that assess how effectively member states are integrating regional tax policies. According to the minister, this comparative benchmarking will foster healthy peer learning, improve tax compliance, and help formalize the sub-region’s large informal economic sectors.
Reaffirming the forum’s dedication to regional economic growth, WATAF Executive Secretary Jules Tapsoba Sulio congratulated Oyedele on his ministerial appointment and praised Nigeria’s long-standing financial and technical leadership. Sulio pledged the forum’s continued commitment to supporting Nigeria and other ECOWAS members through digital transformation initiatives, joint tax research, and administrative capacity building designed to navigate emerging global tax dynamics.
