Ghana could raise about US$300 million from high-net-worth individuals to support long-term national development if the government introduces a structured philanthropy and social investment framework, economist Professor Godfred Alufar Bokpin has proposed.
The proposal comes amid declining foreign aid flows and growing pressure on developing countries to identify sustainable domestic financing sources for infrastructure, social services and economic development.
Prof. Bokpin said Ghana needed a National Philanthropy and Social Investment Policy to coordinate private giving, attract domestic capital and reduce the country’s exposure to unpredictable external development assistance.
Speaking at a National Policy Dialogue on Philanthropy and Social Investment in Accra on Tuesday, he said the proposed framework should be integrated into the national tax system to ensure transparency, accountability and proper oversight of tax reliefs and exemptions.
He argued that the declining availability of foreign aid presented an opportunity for Ghana to develop a domestic resource mobilisation model that harnessed private wealth and charitable contributions for national development.
Bilateral aid to African countries, including Ghana, declined by 26% in 2025, with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projecting a further 12% reduction in 2026.
Prof. Bokpin said a properly designed policy could also help expand the country’s tax base by bringing more economic participants into the formal tax system.
He noted that the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) collected taxes from approximately two million people out of an estimated labour force of 14 million, highlighting the scale of untapped domestic revenue potential.
He explained that about 500,000 Ghanaians had entered the labour market annually over the past 20 years, with many finding employment in the largely unregulated informal economy.
According to him, linking philanthropic contributions to tax filings could create an additional avenue for identifying income earners outside the formal tax net and integrating them into the country’s development financing framework.
“What that means is that people probably may be making legitimate income in the informal economy that is not captured within the formal tax net, but their giving could be captured if philanthropy is linked to tax filings, allowing government to rope them into the financing framework,” he said.
He said Ghana needed to move beyond development financing models that depended heavily on external assistance and establish mechanisms capable of mobilising resources within the domestic economy.
“Whilst Ghana Beyond Aid ended up rather in need of more aid, similar efforts at developing and promoting a national philanthropic and social investment policy could yield tangible national results,” he said.
Prof. Bokpin proposed tax incentives for high-net-worth individuals to encourage them to dedicate a percentage of their wealth to national development initiatives.
He said Ghanaians already contributed an average of 2.4% of their personal income to charitable causes annually, suggesting that a more organised system could unlock significantly greater contributions from wealthier individuals.
Applying the proposed approach to an estimated 2,605 high-net-worth individuals recorded in 2023 could potentially generate about US$300 million for long-term development, he said.
He added that a national framework could also encourage African-born billionaires who had invested substantial resources abroad to channel part of their wealth into development initiatives on the continent.
Such a system, he said, could create a structured avenue for wealthy individuals to support national priorities while strengthening domestic participation in financing Ghana’s development.
