A civil society organisation, ActionAid Ghana, has called for measures to end illicit financial flows into the country.

Such measures, it said, must also lead to the repatriation of stolen wealth to support national development, such as the construction of roads, improvement in health care and empowerment of farmers to secure a more resilient future for the country.

It also called for progressive tax reforms that would ensure wealthy and multinational corporations pay their fair share of national revenue while protecting vulnerable populations.

The Country Director of ActionAid Ghana, John Nkaw, who made the call, added that billions of cedis were lost annually to illicit financial flows (IFFs), unfair trade practices and tax evasion.

He was speaking at a civil society dialogue on Financing for Development (FfD) in Accra yesterday. It was attended by coalition of voices from civil society, including representatives from Amnesty International, Oxfam, STAR-Ghana Foundation, Ghana Integrity Initiative, the Tax Justice Coalition, youth groups and development-focused NGOs.

The dialogue was part of the CSO’s commitment to advocating sustainable financing for development. 

Investment

Mr Nkaw further called for increased investment in quality public services, particularly health care, education, sanitation and social protection.

He expressed concern over the disproportionate impact of weak social infrastructure for women and girls while stressing the need for a gender-responsive budgeting approach to development planning.

“No nation can thrive when its schools are overcrowded, its clinics under-resourced, and its social safety nets non-existent.

We must put people, especially women and girls, at the centre of our development agenda,” the Country Director added.

He also emphasised the need for climate-responsive fiscal policies that promote green and inclusive growth.

Mr Nkaw observed that the global financial system was failing the majority, with over 50 countries in a debt crisis struggling to keep hospitals running, teachers employed, and communities supplied with clean water.

“Ghana is not immune. By the end of 2023, our public debt stood at over GH¢608 billion.

That number represents more than just a macroeconomic strain—it reflects every stalled school project, every understaffed clinic and every young person left behind. 

“And, as it is too often the case, it is women, girls and the poorest households who bear the heaviest burden,” he said.

Impact

The Programme Lead of Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC), Bernard Anaba, warned that illicit financial flows and the rising debt burden were crippling the ability of governments to finance public development programmes.

“Debt is increasingly rising around the world. Governments are trapped in a global financial system that encourages borrowing and makes it possible to roll over debts indefinitely.

“While governments operate in deficits, it is the private sector—multinationals, equity funds, banks and the bond markets that hold the credit,” he added.

Mr Anaba said development required control over the productive sectors of the economy but that increasingly, governments were being pushed to privatise such sectors, like mining, which reduces public control and limits the ability to generate domestic revenues. 

Mr Anaba called for global cooperation where poor countries would work together to push for a fairer system, adding that debt relief and cancellation were key steps.  

He emphasised the importance of domestic resource mobilisation and called for stronger enforcement of capital gains tax, gift tax and taxation of high-net-worth individuals and private equity funds.