WEST African Tax Administration Forum (WATAF) and Tax Justice Network Africa (TJNA), have canvassed tax harmonisation as the fiscal backbone for the financial integration of the Economic Community of West African States.

Speaking yesterday at an interactive session with ECOWAS Parliamentarians at the ongoing 2026 First Ordinary Session in Abuja, they held that without such measure, the region will continue to lose revenue through loopholes, smuggling, opacity and profit shifting.

They decried that harmful tax practices such as tax evasion, tax avoidance and tax mis-invoicing, have been identified as some of the factors responsible for Africa’s persistent domestic resource mobilisation gap of about $194 billion annually.

They decried that reports have underscored an annual loss of about $89 billion by the continent to illicit financial flows (IFF) that could have been prevented.

According to experts, “Africa has a prevalent problem of illicit financial flows, and at least 65 per cent of these could be categorised as commercially-driven. The main practices that could lead to IFFs include tax evasion, tax avoidance, tax misinvoicing and other harmful tax practices.

“These harmful tax practices hemorrhage the available resources that could have been deployed for development of the continent. Advancing tax harmonisation within the ECOWAS sub-region presents a strategic opportunity for WATAF to strengthen regional integration, enhance domestic resource mobilisation and support sustainable development”, they added.

Yet, effectiveness of such efforts, they held, will depend largely on strong political commitment, effective implementation at the national level as well as active parliamentary oversight.

Research Manager, WATAF, Dr Nita Belemaobgo, highlighting the session’s expected outcomes, said the organisation’s objective was to support ECOWAS’ transition on tax directives aimed at harmonising fiscal policies across member states.

“Regional cooperation and evidence-based tools can significantly enhance accountability and reform outcomes”, she noted.

Also speaking, WATAF’s Manager, Communications and Information Technology, Danicius Sengbeh, stressed the importance of setting regional tax harmonisation and domestic resource mobilisation.

According to him, ECOWAS Parliament has a crucial role to play in the oversight function of tax administration. He added that the engagement is about sovereignty, fairness, accountability and West Africa’s future.