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Stakeholders dialogue on domestic revenue mobilization at Shama
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Friends of the Nation (FON) in collaboration with the Shama District Assembly recently organised a stakeholders’ engagement on tax dialogue and validation of the 2021 Annual Progress Report (APR) of the Assembly.
The meeting which was attended by taxpayers including market women, artisans, farmers, representatives from Shama Traditional Council and departmental heads, was part of measures to boost domestic revenue mobilisation in the Shama District of the Western Region.
Opening the workshop, the Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator of FON, Nana Efua Ewur, explained that the programme was aimed at accounting to the citizenry on activities implemented in 2021 and also discuss the way forward for resource mobilisation in 2022.
The District Planning Officer, Alhaji Abu Mahama, also told the participants that the engagement was to showcase the assembly’s technical and financial report for stakeholders to make inputs before it was forwarded to Accra.
He said that the district assembly was working harder to become a model district in Ghana and that in 2021, out of 64 planned projects, 59 were executed, saying that, “not all have been completed.”
The Budget Officer of the Shama District Assembly, Mr Emmanuel Nana Yartel, reported that, many people still had some misconceptions about the assembly’s revenue mobilisation management.
It was for this reason that, the assembly with support from FON, for the past years, had been engaging stakeholders on tax dialogue in so many ways to deepen citizens’ participation and understanding in domestic financing at Shama.
Mr Yartel said “The purpose of taxation is to fund public goods and services, undertake public infrastructure, for example, schools and markets, stabilise the economy and also redistribute income. Again, the basis for charges are also to deter quacks and incompetent persons from operating and also to register businesses.”
Speaking on the expenditure pattern of the assembly, he indicated that, there had been gradual increment of the assembly’s internally generated fund (IGF), explaining that, the successes were due to the assembly’s engagement with taxpayers and stakeholders.
“Currently we have a database of tax payers and still updating it. We need to widen the net of our internally generated fund (IGF) and let people in the district be aware about how funds are utilised.
“The assembly will continue to strengthen its tax payer services and tax expenditure on the dashboard to ensure accountability and transparency in a bid to engender confidence in the tax payer.” the budget officer said.
Mr Yartel mentioned that cemeteries and burial grounds, charity or public educational institutions, public hospitals and clinics and premises owned by diplomatic missions, as may be approved by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, were exempted from assessment and rating tax.
During an open forum, the Queen of Nyanikrom , Nana Akosua Gyamfiaba 11, appealed to the assembly to be moderate in it budget proposal so as not to project huge and unrealistic budget which could not be realised.
By Clement Adzei Boye, Shama
Deputy Director of Operations at the Presidency, Mustapha Gbande, has alleged that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) appears more concerned and emotionally invested in the imprisonment of its Ashanti Regional Chairman, Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, than the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Speaking on Joy Prime on Wednesday, July 22, 2026, in Accra, Mr. Gbande argued that the NPP played a major role in the legal process that led to Wontumi’s conviction.
According to him, the law under which Wontumi was convicted originally carried a maximum prison sentence of three years but was later amended by the NPP administration to increase the maximum punishment to 15 years.
“The law that jailed Wontumi was three years. The NPP enhanced it to 15 years,” he stated.
Mr. Gbande further claimed that the evidence used to prosecute Wontumi was gathered during the previous NPP administration.
He maintained that the case against the NPP chairman did not begin under the current government but was built by officials who served in the former administration.
“The docket that jailed Wontumi was built by the NPP. The evidence that convicted him was built by the NPP,” he asserted.
To support his argument, Mr. Gbande referred to actions taken by the former Minister for Lands and Natural Resources in July 2022, when the minister declared activities linked to Wontumi in the Tano Nimiri Forest Reserve illegal.
He stressed that once an activity has been declared illegal, it remains a breach of the law regardless of who is involved.
By: Jacob Aggrey
The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has warned that traders, transport operators, businesses and individuals who refuse to accept Ghana cedi coins as payment for goods and services could face arrest, prosecution, fines or imprisonment.
In a public notice issued on Wednesday, July 22, 2026, the central bank expressed concern over the widespread refusal to accept 1 pesewa, 5 pesewa, 10 pesewa, 20 pesewa and 50 pesewa coins, as well as the GH¢1 and GH¢2 coins.
It explained that all coins issued by the Bank of Ghana remain legal tender and must be accepted for transactions across the country.
According to the BoG, none of the coins has been withdrawn from circulation or demonetised, and no trader, transport operator, business or individual has the right to reject them because they consider them inconvenient or of low value.
The bank cited the Bank of Ghana Act, 2002 (Act 612), as amended, and the Currency Act, 1964 (Act 242), as the laws governing the use of the country’s currency.
It noted that under the Currency Act, refusing to sell goods or provide services simply because a customer is paying with legal tender coins or banknotes is a criminal offence, unless the currency has been withdrawn from circulation.
The BoG stated that anyone convicted of the offence could face up to three years’ imprisonment, a fine, or both.
It added that people who encourage or instruct others to reject coins, including business owners who direct their employees to do so, are equally liable under the law.
The bank further indicated that a person caught committing the offence may be arrested without a warrant.
To ensure compliance, the BoG said it would work with the Ghana Police Service and other law enforcement agencies to enforce the law against offenders.
It encouraged members of the public to report cases of coin rejection to the nearest Bank of Ghana office, the Ghana Police Service or through the bank’s official communication channels.
The central bank called on individuals, businesses and institutions to accept and handle Ghana’s currency responsibly in all its denominations, saying this would help uphold confidence in the country’s legal tender.
By: Jacob Aggrey
