ECOWAS pleads for prompt payment of community levy

Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, Mohamed Tunis has pleaded for prompt payment of Community Levy by Member States to  finance projects across the sub-region.

Tunis made the call during the closing of the three-day seminar organised as part of activities of the first physical Extraordinary Session of the Parliament’s fifth legislature in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

The Public Relations Department of the ECOWAS Parliament disclosed this in a statement on Friday.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the three-day seminar which will be followed by the Extraordinary Session proper was held from March 23 to March 25.

Describing the seminar as successful, Tunis said the ECOWAS Parliament have adopted several recommendations aimed at improving and collecting arrears of contributions by Member States regarding the Community Levy.

Tunis said the involvement of ECOWAS Members of Parliament in monitoring the implementation of the Protocol on the Community Levy was unanimously adopted.

According to him, the aforesaid levy is intended to generate much needed revenue in order to enable ECOWAS to sufficiently finance its institutions and projects targeted at fostering the integration process.

Tunis added that payment of the levy by Member States would also help by improving the socio-economic livelihoods of the people in the sub-region.

“As you all are aware, the seminar has been educative, inspiring and enriching. The benefits acquired form the deliberations over the past few days are enormous.

“And we are happy that the seminar has achieved the objectives for which it was organized.

“Most importantly, we witnessed the fullest cooperation of Honorable Members of the ECOWAS Parliament, who would agree with me that this seminar has broaden our perspectives on the general overview of the community levy and status of its implementation.

“It was also a forum in which we were presented the status of collection of the community levy, contribution arrears of Member States.

“As well as the prospect of the ECOWAS Community Levy in the face of issues related to the EPAs and the AFCFTA. “We must be honest that we will face many challenges in imple