ECOWAS 0.5% import levy under review
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has begun a comprehensive review of its 0.5 per cent import levy, a key funding mechanism that has supported the bloc’s integration agenda for nearly two decades.
The move follows declining revenues and mounting concerns over compliance across member states, including Ghana.
The levy, charged on goods imported from non-ECOWAS countries, has for over 18 years been the primary source of financing for the regional body’s programmes.
However, enforcement gaps and changing trade dynamics have weakened its effectiveness.
Speaking at the opening of an experts’ meeting in Accra to validate the draft regulation for the Community Levy Manual of Operations, Molokwu Azikiwe, ECOWAS Commission’s Director of Budget and Treasury, stressed that revising the levy framework is essential to safeguard the bloc’s financial stability.
“The community levy forms about 75 to 80 per cent of the programmes and activities of ECOWAS as a whole and is our main source of revenue. After using this protocol for about eighteen years, there is a need to amend it, prove it and update it to address current trends in revenue collections,” Mr Azikiwe explained.
He noted that the updated protocol will aim to strengthen compliance and reflect new realities in international trade and revenue mobilisation.
Addressing questions on enforcement, he pointed out that the protocol already contains a sanctions provision for member states that fail to remit the levy, though any punitive measures must be approved by the Council of Ministers and ultimately by the Heads of State.
“The protocol has a provision for sanctions, but that is the decision of the Council of Ministers and eventually the Heads of State,” Mr Azikiwe clarified.
By modernising the Community Levy framework, ECOWAS aims to restore its financial backbone and ensure reliable funding for cross-border projects in energy, infrastructure and trade facilitation.
Echoing this urgency, Prof Nazil Abdullahi Darma, ECOWAS Commissioner for Internal Services, remarked: “There is no better time than now to develop an effective operations manual.”
