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Elsie Appau-Klu Shines At BRITACOF With Ghana Smart Taxation

On 14th October, 2026, the Digital Transformation panel of the 7th Belt and Road Initiative Tax Administration Cooperation Forum (BRITACOF) in Jakarta, Indonesia, placed Ghana at the centre of global tax reform conversations, as Elsie Appau-Klu, ESQ., Technical Adviser to the Commissioner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority, delivered a compelling keynote on Ghana’s journey from tax informatization to smart taxation. The session was opened and moderated by Chris Sanger. The speaker began with greetings from Ghana – The Center of the World, and warm regards from the Commissioner-General, Mr. Anthony Kwasi Sarpong, on whose behalf she was honoured to deliver the message. She declared that digital transformation is not an IT project, it is a governance reform and building trust with taxpayers must be an integral aspect.

Ghana was represented at the 14th October, 2026 forum by a strong delegation led by Elsie Appau-Klu, ESQ., Technical Advisor to the Commissioner-General, who served as Head of Delegation. She was accompanied by Mr. Moses Koloni Yidana, Head of Transfer Pricing Unit at the GRA, and Mr. Abdul Rauf Nasiru, Head of Telecos and Services at the Large Taxpayer Office Audit Division. The team joined over 300 delegates from nearly 40 jurisdictions to share Ghana’s bold reforms. She traced GRA’s evolution since its formation in 2009 under Act 791 from the merger of CEPS, IRS, VAT Service and RAGB. For many years Ghana digitized forms but did not transform governance, until three decisions changed everything. One ID in 2021 where the Ghana Card PIN became the Tax Identification Number, moving from 3 million TINs to over 18 million identity-linked taxpayers. One Customs in 2020 where ICUMS unified all ports, borders and frontiers. And One Phone in 2025 where the Modified Taxation Scheme for the informal sector, which is 70 percent of Ghana’s economy, allows filing with *880# and paying 3 percent flat tax via Mobile Money in two minutes on a feature phone.

According to the GRA Technical Adviser, the results are measurable. Publican AI delivered an additional GH¢1 billion in April 2026 alone, revenue that would have been lost to undervaluation. Total GRA revenue in 2025 was GH¢182 billion, up from GH¢153 billion in 2024, with a target of GH¢310 billion by 2028. On global context, she cited OECD Tax Administration Series that 69 percent of administrations now use AI, up from 9 percent in 2016. So digital strategy is also a people strategy. In Ghana, GRA is not replacing auditors but retraining them from auditors into data analysts, from checkers into risk managers. She outlined three shifts: from digitizing processes to governing through data – Informatization, Digitalization, Intelligence, and future Embedded Tax via APIs; from auditing months later to monitoring at the point of transaction by matching e-invoices, ICUMS data, bank and Mobile Money data all linked by Ghana Card in real time; and AI recommends, officers decide, built on five safeguards – legal basis under Act 791, security by design, privacy protection, human oversight, and taxpayer right to object and appeal.

The 14th October, 2026 Digital Transformation session featured a world-class lineup. Welcome and moderator opening by Chris Sanger. Keynote 1 (Video) by Bakhtiyor Sulton on The Experience of the Republic of Tajikistan in the Digital Transformation of Tax Administration and the Development of a Taxpayer Centric Approach. Keynote 2 by Hantriono Joko Susilo, Director of Information and Communication Technology, Directorate General of Taxes of Indonesia. Keynote 3 by the Ghanaian delegation head on From tax informatization to smart taxation: the Ghanaian experience and shared paths for Belt and Road jurisdictions. Keynote 4 by Andrew Okello on From Digitalization to Transformation: Building Revenue Administrations that Deliver Compliance, Trust, and Sustainable Revenue. Keynote 5 by Yang Liu – CS&S on Sharing Experience in Supporting the State Taxation Administration’s Tax Digital Transformation. Keynote 6 by Aili Nurk on Digital Transformation of Tax Administration – business perspective. Concluding remarks by Chris Sanger on The future of Tax Administration and Tax Delivery Systems.

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For BRITACOM, she told colleagues on 14th October, 2026 that interoperability is designed, not discovered. If a container leaves Jakarta for Tema, its e-invoice should be visible in Accra. For TAPP 2.0, she proposed common standards to develop a Smart-Tax Reference Architecture and capacity building with a dedicated BRITACEG digital track and a living library of what worked and what failed. Ghana offers its MTS informal sector playbook and wants to learn from Brazil, Indonesia’s e-Meterai and e-Faktur, and China’s Golden Tax System. She closed with: Thank you. Medase. Terima kasih. The Ghanaian delegation will continue engagements in Jakarta through the close of the forum.

The 7th BRITACOF on 14th October, 2026 in Jakarta brought together nearly 40 jurisdictions to advance smarter, fairer and more efficient tax systems, with Ghana’s One ID, One Customs, One Phone model emerging as a leading reference.

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Author: Stella Sunu • Published on Howedey.com

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