30/05/2023 – As part of the Fiscal Transition Support Programme in West Africa (FTSP), the OECD is organising a training workshop on transfer pricing from 30 May to 1 June 2023 in Lomé, Togo, for representatives of the 15 Member States of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, as well as the Commissions of ECOWAS and the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU).

This training workshop is part of a three-year training cycle on transfer pricing organised by the OECD under the FTSP and intended to train thirty tax auditors from West African countries. The training focuses on the Mutual Agreement Procedure which aims to eliminate double taxation resulting from transfer pricing upward adjustments and consists of presentations by OECD experts alongside practical cases and role plays designed to expose the participants to concrete transfer pricing issues. Held in French, English and Portuguese, it provides opportunities for participants to share their experience for the benefit of their respective tax administrations.

At the workshop's opening ceremony, Mr. Kwawo Atta-Kakra Essien, Commissioner of Customs and Indirect Taxes, acting Commissioner of Tax of the Togolese Revenue Office, emphasised the importance of strengthening the capacities of tax administrations to better combat tax avoidance practices eroding their tax bases. Mr.  Joaquín Tasso Villalonga, Ambassador of the Delegation of the European Union to the Togolese Republic, reiterated the EU's support to West African States in the area of domestic resource mobilisation and fiscal transparency, noting "it is a matter of enabling countries to have more resources to facilitate the functioning of public administration, the financing of public investments and to respond to the needs of the populations by providing quality public services". Finally, Ms Samia Abdelghani, Senior Tax Advisor at the OECD, stressed that "the transfer pricing training cycle organised by the OECD under the FTSP, which draws to a close with the Lomé workshop, has made it possible to train over a period of three years some thirty tax auditors from West African countries, to better equip for the audit of multinational companies operating in their respective territories".

The objective of the FTSP, which is funded with 10 million euros from the European Union, is to implement fiscal transition programmes in West Africa following the implementation of regional trade liberalisation policies. Under the programme, the OECD and the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes are providing assistance to the 16 West African states and the ECOWAS and UEMOA Commissions to enable them to better fight tax base erosion, profit shifting, and illicit financial flows with a view to mobilising domestic resources and improving tax transparency.

More information on the OECD's work on building capacity in developing countries to implement international tax standards is available online: www.oecd.org/tax/tax-global/

For more information on the workshop, please contact Ben Dickinson, Head of the Global Relations and Development Division in the OECD's Centre for Tax Policy and Administration (+33 1 45 24 15 29), or ctp.communications@oecd.org.