ECOWAS to Review 0.5% Levy as Revenue Strains Threaten Regional Financing
Member states of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have begun reviewing the bloc’s 0.5 per cent Community Levy, as the regional body seeks to address declining revenues and strengthen financing for integration programmes.
The levy, applied to imports from non-ECOWAS countries, has been the organisation’s main funding mechanism for nearly two decades, covering about 75 to 80 per cent of its activities. But concerns over compliance, enforcement and efficiency have prompted calls for reform.
Speaking in Accra at the opening of an experts’ meeting to validate a draft manual of operations for the levy, Molokwu Azikiwe, Director of Budget and Treasury at the ECOWAS Commission, said the review was “crucial to safeguarding the levy’s role as a reliable source of funding”.
“The idea was that after using this protocol for about eighteen years there is a need to amend it, prove it and update it to be able to address current trends in revenue collections,” Azikiwe noted.
He acknowledged that while sanctions for non-compliance exist under the protocol, decisions on enforcement ultimately rest with the bloc’s Council of Ministers and Heads of State.
Prof Nazil Abdullahi Darma, ECOWAS Commissioner for Internal Services, added that “there is no better time than now to develop an effective operations manual,” underlining the urgency of the reforms.
The review comes as ECOWAS struggles with funding gaps that have slowed the implementation of regional projects. By modernising the levy framework, officials hope to reinforce the bloc’s financial independence and reduce reliance on external partners.
