Kofi Ahovi

Scancom PLC (MTN Ghana) paid a total of GHS10.5 billion in direct and indirect taxes to the Government of Ghana in 2025, up sharply from GHS8.6 billion in 2024, underscoring its growing contribution to the national fiscus as earnings and shareholder returns strengthened significantly. The telecoms leader delivered robust financial results for the year ended December 2025, with profit after tax climbing 55.9 percent to GHS7.8 billion, compared with GHS5.03 billion in the previous year. Earnings per share rose in tandem by 55.9 percent to GHS0.5923, reflecting improved operational performance and sustained revenue expansion. Revenue and profitability momentum Service revenue increased by 36.2 percent year-on-year to GHS24.4 billion, driven primarily by strong growth in data consumption and Mobile Money services. The company’s Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation (EBITDA) grew even faster, rising 43.5 percent to GHS14.7 billion. As a result, the EBITDA margin im...

 President John Dramani Mahama has reassured the business community of his government’s commitment to making revenue mobilisation more business-friendly and transparent. Speaking with Business Leaders during an event to reflect on the Kwahu Business Forum on Tuesday, April 29, President Mahama emphasised that his administration has no intention of introducing new taxes that could threaten the survival of businesses or encourage tax evasion. I noticed that when the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) was introduced, everybody applauded — you applauded the GRA. The GRA is your friend. I can assure you they are your friend, and they will become even more business-friendly because I believe the solution to our situation is not to pile on more taxes,” President Mahama said. Ghanaian fashion He further stated, “The solution is to make taxes more transparent and fair to encourage greater compliance. If you keep adding more taxes, people will inevitably find ways to avoid them. That was the same...

  Mark Aboagye (left), CEO, GNCCI; Dr Joseph Obeng(middle), GUTA President and Dr Humphrey Ayim —Darke, President AGI Business groups have signaled strong intentions to cut jobs, shut down some production lines and increase prices, all in response to the passage of three revenue bills that they had vehemently opposed.  The Association of Ghana industries (AGI), the Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GNCCI) and the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) said the measures were needed to keep their operations afloat while they waited for the much-touted relief that a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was envisaged to bring. Parliament last Friday passed the Income Tax Amendment Bill, the Excise Duty Amendment Bill and the Growth and Sustainability Amendment Bill meant to fetch the government some GH¢4 billion as part of measures to shore up domestic revenue and also fulfill some preconditions to enable it to access US$3 billion in balance of paym...

Eighty-eight percent of business leaders surveyed by accounting and auditing firm, KPMG, have revealed that the government takes too many taxes and yet there is little to show for these taxes. Again, 51.4% of the respondents want that the Electronic Transaction Levy (e-levy) reviewed. Furthermore, petroleum and import duties/levies were singled out as taxes that needed to be reconsidered in order to reduce the rising cost of doing business. They also urged government to reduce the number of ministers, scrap ex-gratia and make it a one-time payment when leaving office and not pay ex-gratia after every four years, whilst import duties should be quoted in cedis, and not dollars. They also appealed to the government to stop the extension of the 5% National Fiscal Stabilisation levy. Approximately 80% of industry leaders believe that the government has done a poor job of improving MSMEs’ access to financial services, such as low-cost financing, and integration into value chains and market. ...

 The mobile telecoms industry in Ghana paid taxes, other payments and remittances to the tune of ¢4.3 billion to the government and its allied agencies in 2021, the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications has revealed. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Chamber, Dr. Ken Edem Ashigbey said the amount represents about 7.7 per cent of government’s total tax revenue for that year and that is very significant coming from just on industry. He was speaking at the launch of the 2021 Telecom Industry Total Tax Contribution Report, which is a study aimed at measuring the size of the contribution that members of GCT made to the government of Ghana during the 2021 fiscal year. Dr. Ashigbey stated that, in terms of ratio, for every GH¢1 that comes into the industry, about 46 pesewas goes back to the government in the form of taxes and levies. The breakdown A breakdown of the taxes into the various components shows that Corporate Income Tax (CIT) of GHS883.6 million remains the largest tax type fr...

 Traders in parts of the central business district of Adum in Kumasi have locked up their shops in protest against rising taxation on their goods. They lament the pressure to honour payment of income tax, high cost of store rentals and charges from the metropolitan assembly is eroding their profits. The cumulative taxes, they say, is crippling their businesses. The usual hustle and bustle at the Central Business District of Adum has been absent. Major shops have been locked up. Red pieces of cloth hung at the entrance of these closed shops. Some shop owners idle around, some sitting in front of their locked shops. They say they have been directed by leaders of the Adum Traders Association to lock up their shops. “As it stands, we are unable to pay our taxes. All along we take that money from our profit to pay the government. The taxes have swallowed us. We cannot pay. The prices of goods have soared so high that it is unbearable,” Kwaku Appiah laments. The traders, including some w...

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has held a two-day education to their members of the Ghana Real Estate Professionals Association on taxes related to the real estate industry. The series of training which began Friday 4 th  of March 2022 saw GREPA members excited about Ghana's tax regime. The real estate professionals have over the past decade been advocating for legislation and a regulatory body for the real estate industry. Thankfully the real estate agency act 1047 got passed in December 2020, which serves as the background for which these industry professionals are committed to perform their civic responsibility, knowing that the industry taxes presents an opportunity for its professional members to become familiar with their tax obligations. Read also: Trade Minister woos investors in Dubai The first session concluded with a highly attended lecture at the GREPA Secretariat in East Legon where participants were very impressed with the knowledge acquired from the training. Some...

  The Minority in Parliament has demanded the immediate removal of three taxes on petroleum products to mitigate the impact of rising prices of crude oil on the international market. Edward Bawa, a member of the Mines and Energy Committee, predicted that fuel prices may hit 9 cedis per litre in the next pricing window, which begins on March 16th, if the government does not heed calls to remove taxes such as the Energy Sector Levy, Sanitation and Pollution Levy, and Special Petroleum Levy. He said should the price hit 9 cedis, “everything will come to a halt.” According to him, even though Ukraine’s crisis may have contributed to the rise in the prices of petroleum products, the increase started before the invasion of that country by Russia. Ukraine may have aggravated the situation, but I am just saying that in that particular case, it is a blessing in disguise. So while we complain about the prices at the local level, we are also always smiling to the Bank because of the monies we...

  MTN Ghana paid out some GHS2.767 billion in direct and indirect taxes for the year 2021, which represent 35.8% of its total revenue for the year, and over 163% higher than what it paid in 2020.  This is contained in the company’s recently released full year report. In 2020, MTN paid GHS1.052 billion in taxes. The 2021 figure is GHS1.715 billion higher than that of the previous. This was in spite of the fact that the company recorded much lower rates of increase in customer base across board in 2021, compared to the rates of increase in 2020. In the year under review, MTN recorded some 3.9 per cent increase in total subscriber base, from 24.4 million in 2020 to 25.4 million. Meanwhile, in 2020 the rate of increase in subscriber base was 23.4 per cent. Again, active data subscribers grew by 15.3% to 12.4 million, compared to 32.4% growth in 2020. The telecoms market leader also saw some 3.8 % increase in its active Mobile Money subscribers to 11 million in the year under revie...

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said one of the surest ways by which the government can raise money to finance development projects is taxation. We ourselves will have to find the money for our development, and that is the reason it has become necessary for us to introduce the famous tax which has caused so much disputation,” he said. The introduction of the Electronic Levy (E-Levy), he said, was necessary for the government, since the country could not continue forever to be dependent on foreign grants and loans to keep the economy going. Courtesy call Speaking during a courtesy call on him by traditional leaders from the Dzodze Traditional Area in the Volta Region at the Jubilee House in Accra last Tuesday, the President said he was determined to ensure that the government found the means to address some of the issues. Government does not have money of its own; taxing the people is the only way government raises money to be able to carry out its work. But as a government, w...

  The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has called on the government to scrap the newly introduced taxes on petroleum products to help bring down the cost of fuel and reduce the economic woes of Ghanaians. It said it was urgent for the government to scrap the special petroleum tax (SPT) of 46 pesewas, the energy sector levy of 20 pesewas and the sanitation levy of 10 pesewas on a litre of diesel and petrol as well as the new increase of 18 pesewas on a kilogramme of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). The National Communications Officer of the NDC, Sammy Gyamfi, made the call yesterday at a press conference in Accra. He also called for the review of other existing taxes on fuel products in line with proposals submitted to the Ministry of Finance and Energy by the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC) and other stakeholders in the downstream petroleum sector. Unbearable According to Gyamfi, the call for immediate action from the government was necessitated by the high and unbearable co...

  Nigeria generated a sum of N1.15 trillion as non-oil revenue between January and August 2021, which is 15.7% above the prorated target of N992.62 billion set by the federal government. This was largely driven by the performance recorded in VAT collections in the review period. Total revenue recorded during the period stood at N3.93 trillion, 27% lower than the targeted revenue. This is according to data from the public presentation of the 2022 FGN budget proposal and 2021 budget implementation report, made by the minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed. Tax Revenues on track to beat target In the period under review, VAT collections stood at N235.77 billion, which is N76.8 billion higher than N158.95 billion prorated revenue target for the period under review. Recall that the federal government budgeted a sum of N238.43 billion as VAT revenue for the 2021 fiscal year, however in just 8 months into the year, 98.9% of the target for the year has already...

The Vice President of Ghana, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, says if the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is given the nod to govern the country for another term, small businesses will pay their taxes online. This forms part of government’s efforts to digitalise every sector of the country. Read also: Chamber for Tourism Industry calls for tax cuts At the official launch of the NPP manifesto at Cape Coast on Saturday, Dr. Bawumia stated that this new development will make it easier to monitor the payment of taxes by Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs). We want to introduce regulatory flexibility for MSMEs in their compliance because there’s so much hustle under the current dispensation that we see for many MSMEs in complying with taxation. So we want to introduce a simplified tax regime for MSMEs with a very flexible one and make sure they can pay their taxes online. So that tax collectors from GRA cannot come in and harass them for non-payment of taxes. In fact, we would totally discourage payme...