Economist and Lecturer at the University of Ghana, Dr.Adu Owusu Sarkodie has called on government to undertake serious reforms in the taxation of the informal sector, natural resource revenue management, and property rates collection adding that the country can unlock an additional GH₵ 110 billion in annual revenue when done .
Speaking after the Mid-Year Budget Review on July 23, 2026, Dr. Sarkodie explained that per his analysis, the country can get nearly half of its entire 2026 revenue target when it undertakes these aforementioned reforms .
“I am yet to see a huge reform in Ghana’s revenue performance in terms of taxing the incomes of the informal sector, in terms of the natural resource, in terms of property rates. I want to see the re-setting agenda in these three because I did my math and I realised that if we do these three well, Ghana can add an additional income of GH₵ 55 billion. No, GH₵ 110 billion.That’s about half of the entire money that the government is looking for in the year 2026 alone.” he stated
Dr. Sarkodie also cautioned against the Finance Minister’s no-revenue-no-spending approach arguing that that approach is not sustainable for long term economic growth and transformation hence urging the Ministry to find aggressive ways to mobilize revenue.
“The second recommendation is that we must embark on aggressive revenue mobilisation.The posture of the Finance Minister is that if he doesn’t get the revenue, he will not spend. But if you continue to manage an economy like this, you will not get the needed growth and transformation that you need. Therefore, we must try and raise inner revenue so that we can spend on productive sectors.”he added
On the 24 hour economy, Dr. Sarkodie urged the government to prioritise the implementation of key initiatives outlined in the 24-Hour Economy document ,singling out the development of economic activities around the Volta Lake as a particularly promising idea that deserves urgent and sustained pursuit
“And the other recommendation is that there are beautiful ideas in the 24-hour economic documents and therefore we should try and implement some of them, especially the one on the development of economic activities around the Volta lake. It is a brilliant idea. They must continue, they must make any effort, every effort to pursue that..” He said
Dr. Sarkodie also raised concerns about the implementation of the 24-Hour Economy policy, arguing that there is a clear disparity between what was promised and what is currently being delivered . He also challenged the logic behind prioritising the construction of 24-hour markets.
“Finally, the issue of 24-hour economy. What was promised, what is contained in the document, and what they are delivering are different things. They promised 133. In the document, 133 appears only in one page of the 287 pages. The entire document is about economic transformation.But they’re not even doing economic transformation. They’re focussing on building markets. The market is about buying and selling.What are you going to sell on the market when you have not transformed the economy?Where is the factory to produce what to be sold on the market? For me, this is a bigger question.” He questioned
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