Professor Godfred Alufar Bokpin, an economist, has said Ghana’s International Monetary Fund (IMF)-supported reforms have not delivered the expected structural improvements in domestic revenue mobilisation, despite years of policy implementation.
He called on the government to strengthen tax administration, seal loopholes in existing revenue measures, expand the tax net to cover more of the informal sector and reduce the country’s dependence on volatile commodity revenues.
Prof Bokpin made the remarks in an interview with the media on Ghana’s revenue performance under the IMF programme on the sidelines of a public financial management and fiscal decentralisation training for selected journalists in Accra.
He noted that although Ghana introduced the National Revenue Policy (GNRP) in 2023, guided by the Medium-Term Revenue Strategy (MTRS), to improve domestic revenue mobilisation, the country’s tax-to-Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio had remained largely unchanged.
The Ministry of Finance has indicated that Ghana’s tax-to-GDP ratio has stagnated between 12 and 14 percent since 2015.
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Prof Bokpin, who is also a Professor of Finance at the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS), said the ratio had averaged about 14 percent throughout the implementation of the IMF-supported programme, suggesting that the reforms had not significantly strengthened the country’s revenue base.
He observed that while revenue measures were expected to generate GH¢268.1 billion by the end of the year, first-quarter data released by the Ministry of Finance showed that only GH¢57.53 billion had been mobilised, slightly below target.
According to him, the shortfall reflects the limited impact of IMF-backed reforms on domestic revenue mobilisation.
“With all the IMF-inspired reforms, Ghana’s revenue envelope has not improved significantly. We have gold-backed foreign exchange sitting with the central bank, so we are less exposed to exchange rate fluctuations, but Ghana still needs more domestic revenue,” he said.
Prof Bokpin also expressed concern over the impact of political transitions on businesses and tax collection.
He said frequent changes in government often affected business operations, with some firms becoming inactive until there was a change in political administration.
“Businesses rise and fall with politics, but we must move away from that. A stable and growing indigenous business base, from micro to small, medium and large enterprises, is the only sustainable way to broaden the tax base. If businesses continue to collapse because of politics, the tax base cannot expand,” he said.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Baah Forson, during the presentation of the 2026 Mid-Year Budget Review last month, reported that domestic revenue reached 7.7 percent of GDP by the end of June 2026, marginally below the target of 7.8 percent.
The Minister said sustainable revenue growth would be driven by sound policy, stronger tax compliance and more efficient revenue administration rather than higher taxes.
He added that the introduction of artificial intelligence-powered customs reforms had increased customs revenue by about 15 percent.
