By Ernest Bako WUBONTO
A recent assessment of property tax administration in Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) has revealed that only about 50 out of the 261 maintain some form of property database, with most records being incomplete or outdated.
The MMDAs that had reliable databases were those supported by international partners and donor agencies through pilot projects. However, most of these initiatives could not be sustained after the Ghana Revenue Authority took over property rate collection in 2020.
The study, which indicated a significant gap in data management, enforcement and revenue collection, noted that these challenges undermine tax identification accuracy and limit revenue potential for local development.
With property tax seen as a largely untapped but powerful tool for raising development funds, MMDAs are urging the central government to remove the key barriers hindering its effective collection.
To enhance property taxation in Accra-Ghana and four other African cities – including Kampala-Uganda, Nairobi-Kenya, Lagos-Nigeria and Harare-Zimbabwe – the African Cities Research Consortium (ACRC), in collaboration with the Local Governance Network (LoGNet), held a three-day international workshop on property tax reform and revenue mobilisation.
The workshop aims at advancing property tax reforms in Africa, as a strategy to boost domestic revenue mobilisation, reduce reliance on the central government transfers and promote sustainable, inclusive urban development.
Representing the LoGNet, Dr. Loretta Agyeman highlighted challenges such as weak property data management and incomplete and outdated records as making most MMDAs lack reliable property databases, making it difficult to identify taxable properties and evaluate accurately.
She added that poor inter-agency collaboration, linking it to limited integration between the Lands Commission and MMDAs, results in fragmented and inconsistent property ownership records, complicating tax assessments.
“While various reforms and pilot initiatives have sought to address these issues, significant obstacles persist. These include tensions between central and local governments, uncertainty over the appropriate administrative level for implementation (local vs national), technological adoption challenges, resistance from local administrations and taxpayers (particularly economic and political elites), as well as resource constraints, capacity gaps, local political dynamics and widespread public mistrust,” she mentioned.
Challenges in rate setting & collection
In a presentation, Samuel B. Biitir, senior lecturer, Department of Land Management, SD Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies, indicated that some MMDAs engage stakeholders to align tax rates with fiscal needs, but inconsistent data weakens fairness.
Limited access to digital payment options remains a major challenge, as tax payments are mostly restricted to a few banks or done in person. This lack of convenient public payment channels has been identified as a key barrier to improving compliance.
“Low collection rates, corruption, informal payment methods and weak enforcement contribute to significant revenue leakage,” he said.
Enforcement and compliance struggles also continue to saddle most of the assemblies. The report indicated that weak political will means during election years, for instance, enforcement is often undermined by reluctance to penalise influential elites, eroding public trust in the system.
Ruling governments do not want to get unpopular with locals because of property tax, making it difficult to enforce collection.
Call to action
To improve property tax administration, experts recommend modernising property databases, digitising and regularly updating records to ensure accuracy, enhancing inter-agency coordination and strengthening collaboration between the Lands Commission and MMDAs for reliable data sharing.
Expanding payment channels through the introduction of mobile money and online payment options will improve convenience, as realised in some cases.
“A credible and transparent property tax system is essential for local revenue mobilisation. With better data, enforcement and taxpayer engagement, MMDAs can unlock critical funds for infrastructure and services,” said Mr. Biitir.
Under Section 144 of the Local Governance Act, 2016 (Act 936), MMDAs were solely responsible for property tax collection.
However, the previous government introduced a Unified Common Platform under the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to manage property rate collections for MMDAs. This led to a disagreement between the central government and assemblies, leading to an indefinite halt in the property tax collection over the past three years.
