The government has fallen short of its first-half target for the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-levy) by GH¢87.9 million, despite significant growth in Mobile Money (MoMo) transactions. According to the Mid-Year Budget Review, the government aimed to raise GH¢898.4 million by the end of June 2024 but managed to collect GH¢810.5 million, marking a shortfall of approximately 9.7%.
This shortfall occurred despite a 37.3% increase in the value of MoMo transactions and a 19.1% rise in volume compared to the same period in 2023. The total value of MoMo transactions by June 2024 exceeded GH¢1.24 trillion. Although 1% of this would have amounted to GH¢12.4 billion, various exemptions on MoMo transactions made this figure unrealistic. None the less, GH¢810.5 million is significantly low.
However, the shortfall of just 9.7% represents the best performance of the controversial levy so far, suggesting that the government may now be setting more realistic targets for the E-levy. In its first year of implementation in 2022, the government initially targeted GH¢7 billion, later revised it to GH¢6.9 billion, and eventually slashed it in its Mid-Year Budget by 91% to GH¢611 million, but still fell short of this lowered target by raising less than GH¢600 million.
For 2024, the government aims to raise a total of GH¢2.1 billion from the E-levy but has achieved only 38.5% of this target in the first half of the year. This suggests that the full-year target is unlikely to be met.
The E-levy has been criticized as a disincentive to Ghana’s push toward an electronic payment society. The National Democratic Congress (NDC) and even the New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential candidates have indicated plans to withdraw the levy if elected in the upcoming elections. However, due to pressure on the government to increase domestic revenue under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme and expectations from multilateral lenders like the World Bank and African Development Bank, the E-levy is likely to remain in place for the foreseeable future unless there is significant public opposition.
