Abuja, 11^th September 2018. The ECOWAS Commission is training Member States in fiscal forecasting and revenue mobilization.

To this end, a 5-day training workshop is holding in Abuja, Nigeria, from the 10^th to the 15^th of September, 2018.

The Workshop is being organized by ECOWAS Commission, to develop capacities in the Quasi-accounting model for Revenue administrators from ECOWAS Member States, UEMOA as well as the academia.

The Director of Customs Mr, Salifou Tiemtore opened the workshop with a welcome message from the Commissioner of Trade, Customs and Free Movement Mr. Tei Konzi. He congratulated Member States for adopting this model and working to actualise the harmonisation of revenue collection and analysis within the community.

The representative of Nigeria, Mr. Sanusi Shu’aibu Gwaram, gave the goodwill message, welcoming all participants to Abuja the Nigerian capital. He urged all participants, to participate fully in order to contribute to the capacity building of the various countries. He also reminded them, that they are the focal points from their states and will need to absorb as much as possible, in order to be able to train their fellow colleagues, when they get back home.

The ECOWAS fiscal Transition Programme was developed to assist member states maximize the positive effects of regional integration and minimize the negative effects of tax competition in the emerging customs union within the Community.

This said programme has six priority intervention areas with five axes. With capacity development of customs and tax administrators being one of the key measures.

In recognition of the critical role of forecasting in domestic revenue mobilization, the ECOWAS Commission through the Customs Directorate and Economic Policy Analysis Unit (EPAU), had a series of missions and consultation with Member States, to identify their training needs for revenue mobilisation and fiscal forecasting for 2017.

As a result, a training workshop was organised with the main objectives of designing an effective means of addressing these needs and priotizing them based on fiscal forecasting and an action plan was drafted for effective implementation of the proposed model.

The Quasi accounting model was chosen as the main instrument to be used in all the member states. This model will also aid interaction with the international Monetary Fund’s Missions. Based on needs identified, Member States were categorised in terms of their operational capacities of the model for policy simulation and analysis.

At the end of the workshop, participants will have a better understanding on how to apply Quasi-accounting Model at national level to improve the efficiency and streamline forecasting analysis.

Participants will also learn how to automate Quasi-accounting model for stimulation, forecasting and impact analysis.