GRA trains senior officers to boost tax compliance

The Ghana Revenue Authority is doubling down on its push to close the country’s tax compliance gap, rolling out a structured training initiative for senior officers aimed at sharpening the frontline skills needed to boost domestic revenue mobilization across the nation.

The five-day General Competency Development Training, currently underway at the CEPS Academy Training School at Agortome Kpetoe in the Volta Region, brings together Senior Revenue Officers of the GRA in what organisers describe as a coordinated effort to lift the standard of tax administration from the ground up.

Opening the programme, Commissioner of the Support Services Division Alex Adomanko Mensah set the tone by drawing a direct line between effective tax collection and Ghana’s broader development aspirations. He called on Ghanaian citizens to honour their tax obligations, reiterating that domestically generated revenue remains indispensable to funding the infrastructure and public services the country depends on.

But Mr Mensah was equally pointed in the responsibility he placed on the officers themselves, stressing that the quality of the relationship between tax authorities and taxpayers is just as consequential as the legal frameworks that govern compliance. Professionalism, public education, and institutional transparency, he argued, are not optional extras; they are the foundation upon which voluntary tax compliance is built.

Academy Commandant Eric Boakye echoed that sentiment, offering participants a frank assessment of what life in the field demands. Tax collection, he noted, is rarely straightforward, requiring officers to marry technical competence with sharp interpersonal skills as they engage taxpayers across vastly different contexts and settings. The training, he said, is specifically designed to address the gaps that make that balance difficult to strike.

The programme itself is structured around intensive sessions combining formal presentations with interactive discussions, pushing participants to deepen their grasp of different taxpayer profiles and develop more targeted, context-sensitive engagement strategies. A strong emphasis has also been placed on improving collaboration and cohesion within the Authority, an internal culture shift that GRA leadership views as essential to translating individual officer capability into stronger institutional performance overall.