Member of Parliament for Ketu North, Edem Agbana, has demanded that Ghana’s governments take urgent steps to formalise the informal sector and widen the tax net. Speaking on the Big Issue on Saturday, November 14, he said successive national budgets have repeatedly promised to broaden the tax base but have made little progress in capturing the sector’s economic activities.
Agbana argued that formalising informal businesses should now be treated as an urgent priority, beginning with operators who are closer to the formal economy and can be more easily integrated into the tax system. He urged that institutions such as the Registrar‑General’s Department and other relevant agencies be strengthened to ensure that business registration processes support efforts to bring more operators into the tax net.
“I agree that as a country we have paid lip service to the issue of raising funds from the informal sector for too long. Every single budget read from 1993, you see in the Finance Minister’s plans that we will widen the tax net and rope in many more people from the informal sector. We’ve always paid lip service to this particular thing,” he said.
The MP also pointed to existing identification and banking requirements, including the use of the Ghana Card and Taxpayer Identification Numbers (TIN), as tools that could support the formalisation process. He noted that some operators in the informal sector, including market women, earn more than certain registered businesses but remain outside the tax system.
Agbana said the focus of the national conversation should therefore be on developing practical ways to identify such businesses, formalise their operations and ensure they contribute to national revenue. The MP’s call comes as Ghana seeks to boost domestic revenue and create a more inclusive tax environment.
