The workshop will educate participants, mostly from the Ghana Hairdressers and Beautician Association (GABA), on the need to voluntarily pay taxes and what taxes are used for.

Mrs Florence Asante, Assistant Commissioner, Corporate and Public Affairs of GRA, said the GRA would  this year embark on a transformational drive of educating the informal sector on the need to pay taxes.

Mrs Asante added that there was the need to ensure that those working in the informal sector understood the processes;how to file returns, their tax obligations among others.

She further said the GRA was working towards making the collection of taxes easier and more convenient for taxpayers

"For instance, we are looking at using mobile money for people to pay tax, they don't have to walk to our offices to make payment, "she said.

She implored the informal sector to honour taxes voluntarily to augment  the formal sector's contribution to enable the country make enough revenue to embark on developmental programmes.

Mr Juergen Ehrke, GIZ Component Manager, Domestic Revenue Mobilization, on his part, said even though Ghana was doing well on the continent in sectors, the country was behind in public finance and called for a strong desire and commitment from the private sector to increase the country's 12.6 per cent tax to GDP ratio to the targeted 20 per cent.

Mr Ehrke encouraged the citizenry to do their part by not only participating in political discussions but also pay taxes as their civic obligation.

Mr Anthony Adjei, Head of Budget, Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA), on his part, said the workshop which was the beginning of series, formed part of innovative ways to educate the informal sector on the importance taxes.