President Nana Ado Dankwa Akufo-Addo has made a Clarion call for the nation to put an end to reliance on foreign savings for national development.
The president believes it is imperative the nation boycott foreign aid and took bold steps in raising funds domestically.
“There is one matter of overriding significance, which we can no longer ignore: that is the pressing need to increase, drastically, our domestic resource mobilisation and reduce and eliminate our dependence on foreign savings.”
However, President Akufo-Addo was disappointed that not everyone is ready to take the next step to the recognition that accelerated national development can best take place with a considerable increase in revenue mobilisation.
According to him only few citizens will take the next further step to accept that revenue mobilisation is principally through taxation in our society.
To buttress his stance, he stated that “we have, unfortunately, not yet reached the stage of universal acceptance of taxation as a matter of public good.”
Speaking at the nation’s 65th Independence Day celebrations he said that “less than 10 percent of the Ghanaian population, i.e., 2.4 million people, carry the direct tax burden of 30.8 million people. The Asian Tigers, who we envy and want to emulate, financed their rapid development from their own savings.”
He again noted that Ghana’s tax-to-GDP ratio, which is pegged at 12.2%, compared to other states was poor.
