Ghana’s Electronic Transactions Levy (E‑Levy) delivered a stronger‑than‑expected performance in the first half of 2025, pulling in GH₵812.7 million, about 57 percent more than the government had projected for the period. But the controversial tax, which for three years added an extra cost to almost every digital transaction, has now been abolished, cutting off that revenue stream for the rest of the year.
Figures from the Ministry of Finance’s half‑year fiscal tables show that the government budgeted GH₵517.7 million from the levy between January and June. Instead, collections surged far beyond that mark, suggesting the tax could have generated well over GH₵1.6 billion by December if it had remained in force. But the E‑Levy was officially scrapped on July 1, 2025, closing one of the most divisive chapters in Ghana’s recent tax history.
The levy, introduced in May 2022, applied a percentage fee on electronic transfers above a set threshold, initially 1.5 percent, later reduced to 1 percent. It was promoted as a way to widen Ghana’s tax base by tapping into the country’s rapidly growing mobile money and digital payment systems.
From the outset, it was pitched as a “revenue lifeline” to support youth employment programmes, infrastructure, and debt servicing. But the tax quickly became a lightning rod for public frustration. For ordinary Ghanaians, every mobile money transfer, every payment to a trader, every remittance to a family member came with an added charge.
That extra cost changed behaviour: some people reduced how often they transacted digitally, while others reverted to cash altogether. Mobile money operators reported slower transaction growth, and many critics argued the levy stifled the very digital economy it was trying to tax.
Yet, despite its unpopularity, the E‑Levy kept working for government revenue. The strong first‑half outturn proved it had become a reliable contributor to the budget, right up until it was turned off.
Now that the tax is gone, so is the income it was generating. Going into the second half of 2025, the budget loses what was shaping up to be one of its biggest non‑oil revenue lines.
Some observers suggest that the government may have to lean more heavily on other tax handles, such as the recently introduced GH₵1‑per‑litre Energy Levy on fuel, to make up part of the shortfall. That levy, however, carries its own implications, since it feeds directly into transport and consumer costs.
What is certain is that the end of the E‑Levy removes a major, if contentious, source of state revenue. It relieves Ghanaians of a tax that had quietly reshaped their daily transactions, but it also leaves the government looking for ways to close the gap in its books for the rest of the year.
