Commissioner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Ms. Julie Essiam has officially stepped down from office.
Ms. Essiam who was the first female Commissioner-General of GRA, only held the office for 9 months after she was appointed by former President Nana Akufo-Addo to succeed Rev. Dr. Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah in April 2024. The former was relieved from his duties on March 27, 2024.
Without stating the reasons for her resignation, Ms. Essiam in a letter addressed to the President through the Finance Minister-designate showed gratitude for the opportunity she had to serve at the authority.
She described her five and half year career at GRA as very incredible indicating she is proud of her achievements.
“With the greatest depth of gratitude, after five and half years of an incredible career at the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), I write to resign from my position as the Commissioner-General of the Authority, with immediate effect”, the letter said.
Touting her achievements, Ms. Julie Essiam proudly mentioned a 35% nominal increase in revenue in the 2024 fiscal year. From a target of GH₵145.998 billion, she is proud to say her administration realized an amount of GH₵152.977 billion.
She further revealed this performance has significantly improved the country’s Tax-to-GDP ratio which hovers around 14% to 17% exceeding the target of 16.1%.
“With this performance, the GRA is now operating at a Tax to GDP Ratio of 17.0%, exceeding the target of 16.1%. Overall, this achievement represents a nominal growth of 35.3% over the 2023 performance,” she noted.
Although she is leaving office, Ms. Julie further recommended to the new government to prioritize urgent implementation of the IMF Structural Benchmarks to improve the operations of the GRA.
Before her appointment as the Commissioner-General, Ms. Essiam was at the GRA’s Support Services Division.
Prior to joining the GRA, she served as a Group Executive of Ecobank Transnational Inc.; Director of Citibank Group; and Vice President of Chase Manhattan Bank.
Her resignation gives room for one more appointment to be made by President Mahama. It is not yet unclear who will be appointed by the current administration to head the revenue authority.
