Vanessa van den Boogaard

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Ghana’s e-levy has hit traders in the country’s informal sector the hardest. Christophe Gateau/picture alliance via Getty Images

Ghana’s e‑levy is unfair to the poor and misses its revenue target: a lesson in mobile money tax design

Mike Rogan, Rhodes University; Max Gallien, Institute of Development Studies; Nana Akua Anyidoho, University of Ghana, and Vanessa van den Boogaard, Institute of Development Studies

Domestic resource mobilisation cannot be achieved by over-taxing the livelihoods of the most vulnerable workers in the informal sector.
A lot of African countries have implemented taxes on electronic transactions. Wikimedia Commons

New data on the e‑levy in Ghana: unpopular tax on mobile money transfers is hitting the poor hardest

Mike Rogan, Rhodes University; Max Gallien, Institute of Development Studies; Nana Akua Anyidoho, University of Ghana, and Vanessa van den Boogaard, Institute of Development Studies

The tax on electronic transactions has not generated as much revenue as the government of Ghana expected.
Informal head porter workers Percent Boatemaq (left) and Lusaka Fuseina (right) carrying goods on their heads at Agbogbloshie market in Accra, Ghana. Photo by Jonathan Torgovnik/Getty Images

The World Bank and IMF are using flawed logic in their quest to do away with the informal sector

Mike Rogan, Rhodes University; Max Gallien, Institute of Development Studies, and Vanessa van den Boogaard, Institute of Development Studies

Influential international actors like the World Bank and the IMF should focus on expanding social protection rather than focusing on eliminating the informal economy.

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