The Ghana Revenue Authority is placing data and modern statistical tools at the centre of its strategy to reverse weak revenue performance and improve tax compliance in an increasingly digital economy.
Officials of the Authority say traditional enforcement and assessment methods alone can no longer deliver the revenue needed to fund national development, especially as mobile money, e-commerce and artificial intelligence reshape how business is done in Ghana.
Speaking at the opening of the 2026 GRA Statistics and Data Analysts’ Seminar in Ho, the Technical Advisor to the Commissioner-General, Elsie Appau-Klu, delivering and address on behalf of the Commissioner General, Anthony Kwasi Sarpong, said the Authority must become more intelligent, responsive and driven by evidence.
The five-day seminar, being held from Monday, August 18 to Friday, August 22 at the Volta Serene Hotel, has brought together statisticians, researchers and data analysts from across the GRA’s operational areas.
The theme for the Seminar is ‘’The Modern Statistician: Driving Revenue Growth Through Data Analytics’’. She mentions that revenue challenges remain a continues struggle with revenue mobilisation in Ghana.
The country’s tax-to-GDP ratio remains below its potential, limiting the state’s capacity to finance infrastructure and social services.
In a frank assessment, she disclosed that the Authority is collecting only about half of the projected revenue from Value Added Tax, while performance in the area of corporate income tax also remains underwhelming.
She explains that it is not necessarily because tax rates are too low, but because large segments of economic activity are not captured, compliance is uneven, and analytical systems have not kept pace with the speed of economic change.
“The traditional tools of tax administration remain important, but they are no longer sufficient on their own. As the economy becomes increasingly digital, tax administration must become increasingly intelligent, responsive and data-driven.’’
The central focus of her remarks centres on the role of statisticians and data analysts within the Authority. She argued that their work should no longer be confined to compiling monthly, quarterly and annual reports for management. Instead, analysts should become core drivers of strategy, policy design, revenue forecasting and compliance management.
Four New Roles for the Modern Statistician
Mrs Appau-Klu outlined four new roles for the modern statistician in the GRA: detective, risk manager, policy adviser and guardian of data integrity. As detectives, she said, analysts must use data to ask and answer difficult questions: Who is still outside the tax net? Which sectors are booming but contributing less than expected in taxes? Where are there inconsistencies between declared incomes and observable economic activities?
This investigative function is key to identifying untapped sectors and emerging business models, from influencers and content creators to logistics riders and small-scale online vendors, who may be operating largely outside the formal tax system, she said.
In their second role as risk managers, statisticians are expected to deploy analytical models to flag high-risk sectors, detect unusual filing patterns, and anticipate new forms of tax evasion. Such targeted risk analysis,
She explains this will allow the GRA to channel its limited audit and enforcement resources to where the risks are highest, while sparing compliant taxpayers unnecessary scrutiny and harassment.
“Effective risk management helps us focus enforcement on real risks and reduce the burden on those who are doing the right thing, from activity reporting to impact assessment.’’
Mrs. Appau-Klu
The third role, policy adviser, marks a significant shift in expectation. Mrs Appau-Klu challenged participants to move from reporting activities to measuring impact. She insisted that tax policy and administrative reforms must be grounded in rigorous modelling, scenario analysis and post-implementation evaluation, rather than intuition or assumptions.
“It is not enough to say that a campaign was conducted or that a programme was implemented. We must also be able to say, what changed because we did it? Under this approach, every taxpayer education drive, compliance intervention and reform measure should be subjected to data analysis to determine whether it improved registration, filing, payment or reduced leakages.’’
Mrs. Appau-Klu
Her fourth point touched on data quality and ethics. Mrs Appau-Klu warned that flawed, outdated or incomplete data could lead to poor decisions and ineffective policies that hurt both revenue and public trust.
She stressed that as the GRA integrates more third party data sources, including from banks, telcos and other government agencies, it must maintain the highest standards of confidentiality, cybersecurity and responsible use of taxpayer information.
Urgent Deliverables to Boost Revenue
Mrs. Appau- Klu outlines three urgent deliverables priority outcomes she expects from the Ho seminar. First, she wants stronger regional revenue intelligence. She explained that a more granular, analytical profile of each region will help management understand why some Taxpayer Service Centres perform better than others, which sectors are driving growth in specific regions, and where leakages are most pronounced. Second, she called for improved predictive revenue models.
Third, she tasked participants to design and propose practical, data-driven initiatives that can be implemented between now and December 2026 to directly support revenue mobilisation. According to her, clear charts, dashboards and simple narratives can build public support for tax reforms.
The seminar is expected to feature technical sessions on advanced analytics, risk modelling, data cleaning, and the integration of artificial intelligence tools in revenue forecasting.
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