Government earns Ghs 35 billion from ghana.gov platform in six months
Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta says the Ghana.gov platform, which is the single online portal for the public to access and pay for all government services digitally accounted for over Ghs 34 billion in transaction value between May and October 2021.
The Minister made the remark during his 2022 Budget presentation in Parliament on Wednesday.
Information gathered reveals that the actual value of transaction on the platform, stands at Ghs 35 billion plus from some 9,494,646 transactions over the period under review.
Out of the total, Ghana Revenue Authority alone accounted for a whopping GHS34.6 billion, while the MDAs (ministries, departments and agencies) accounted for GHS 457.1 million and the MMDAs (metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies) brought in a meager GHS217,220.
Ghana.gov was launched earlier this year to give the public a single-point online access to government services from Passport Office, Ghana Revenue Authority Ghana Immigration Service, Births and Deaths, the various MDAs and MMDAs as well the police, justice system, health and many more.
It was designed by three Ghanaian Fintechs – Hubtel, IT Consortium and ExpressPay, and it allows services from the various state institutions on Ghana.gov to be paid for via mobile money, bank cards and other digital wallets.
At the time of the launch, the Vice President, Dr. Mahammudu Bawumia stated that it is the one policy that will drive what he called the “demons and principalities” in the government revenue collection architecture and ensure that all of government’s revenue are lodge directly into bank accounts.
According to the Minister, so far there are 49 public institutions whose transactions can be access on Ghana.gov, but by the close of November 2021, the number is expected to increase to 165.
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Per statistics exclusively available to TechGh24, Ghana.gov, the details of an additional 123 institutions have populated at the backend of the portal, while some 95 agencies are in various stages of integration to go-live by end of November, with nine still being populated and awaiting approval of fees and charges,
Meanwhile, so far, there are 23 commercial banks actively collecting government payments via the portal, while there are ongoing engagement to onboard all Rural Banks and community banks by end of year to expand access to payment and collection.
Ken Ofori-Atta observed that Ghana.gov has for one created the opportunity for government to harness increases in captured economic actors from 4 percent to 84
percent, which creates a real chance to achieve the intended expansion of the tax net.
He said Ghana.gov is part of the holistic digital Ghana agenda, which has catalyzed financial inclusion and is therefore helping to mobilize resources and direct it where it is needed most.
Due to digitalization, he said, “tens of billions of Ghana cedis are mobilized every month from and by people previously presumed too poor to open and keep a traditional bank account or even operate a mobile phone. With millions of Ghanaians tapping into the convenience of simplified payment systems, transactions that used to take place on the blind side of the Central Bank is now fully visible.”
The Minister said digitalization is contributing to the formalization of our economy – a subject about which so much had been said for years but about which so little had been actually done
“With digitization, state institutions are more able to plug revenue leakages and thus increase internally generated funds. That gives them the capacity to potentially pay their workers better wages and reduce borrowing by central government for capital expenditure because they can go to a bank on the strength of their own books, and so reduce the country’s debt overhang over time,” he said.
Meanwhile, recently, in his digitalization lecture, the Vice President announced further measures put in place to boost revenue mobilization in the country. He mentioned the National Common Platform for Property Tax and Land Administration, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing digitalization, the paperless port, ICUMS and others.
There is also an ongoing process to convert all Ghana Card number to SSNIT and Tax Identification Numbers (TIN) in order to capture every Ghanaian into the tax net. Ghana Revenue Authority has also launched an app to make it easy for all Ghanaians to file their tax returns.
