West Africa community levies: ECOWAS, WAEMU and AES
Regional blocs in West Africa charge their member states a small levy on imports from outside the bloc, to fund the bloc's own institutions. It is separate from customs duty and VAT, it is easy to miss on a quote, and after the 2025 changes to ECOWAS membership it is easy to get wrong.
What the levies are
Each levy is a percentage of the CIF value of goods, charged when a member state imports from outside the bloc. In Customs Declare the levy is calculated on CIF only, not on CIF plus duty as VAT and excise are.
The three levies we hold
- ECOWAS Community Levy: 0.5% of CIF, under Protocol A/P.2/8/03 of 2003. The exact adoption day within 2003 is not confirmed, so we record the year only. It is waived when the goods originate in a WAEMU member state.
- WAEMU Community Solidarity Levy (PCS): 0.8% of CIF. It was cut from 1% to 0.8% from 1 July 2017. A further cut to 0.5% was planned from 1 January 2019, but WAEMU's 20th Summit decided to keep 0.8%. Many generic guides still quote the older 1%.
- AES Confederal Levy (PC-AES): 0.5% of CIF on imports into Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger from outside the Alliance of Sahel States, adopted by the AES Heads of State College on 28 March 2025. It exempts WAEMU-origin goods, since all three remain WAEMU members.
When a levy applies
- The importing country must be a member of the bloc that charges it.
- The goods must originate outside that bloc.
- The goods must not originate in a bloc named as a waiver for that levy: WAEMU-origin goods are exempt from the ECOWAS and AES levies.
- Levies stack. A WAEMU member that is also in ECOWAS, importing from a third country, owes both the ECOWAS levy and the WAEMU levy.
- Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger left ECOWAS on 29 January 2025, so they no longer count as ECOWAS members for the ECOWAS levy.
Worked examples (illustrative, CIF value 10,000 USD)
The rates below follow how Customs Declare models each corridor.
- China to Ghana: ECOWAS levy only, 0.5%, which is 50 USD. Ghana is not in WAEMU.
- China to Senegal: ECOWAS 0.5% plus WAEMU 0.8%, which is 1.3% or 130 USD.
- Mali to Senegal: no levy in our model, because Mali is a WAEMU member and the origin is inside the WAEMU bloc.
- Nigeria to Ghana: no levy, because both are ECOWAS members.
What we have not confirmed
We model the WAEMU levy as continuing to apply to Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger after their exit from ECOWAS, because their WAEMU membership is unchanged and we found no source saying collection stopped. That would put PC-AES and the WAEMU levy together at 1.3% on goods from a third country. If you import into one of these countries, confirm the levies actually charged with customs. Sources for the ECOWAS and AES rows are news and guide sites rather than official texts, apart from the WAEMU 20th Summit communique for the 0.8% rate.
Frequently asked questions
Is the community levy the same as customs duty?
No. It is an additional charge based on CIF value, collected on imports from outside the bloc. Duty and VAT are calculated separately.
Is the levy charged on trade between ECOWAS members?
No. The levy is for imports from outside the bloc. ECOWAS-origin goods moving between members do not pay the ECOWAS levy, and WAEMU-origin goods are also exempt from it.
How do I prove origin to avoid the levy?
The levy waiver depends on the goods' origin, so hold the origin documents the destination's customs require. We have not verified the exact proof each country asks for, so confirm it with the importing customs authority.
Sources
Last verified: 2026-09-29
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