The conference, organised by the Institute of Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development (IESBD) and Support Her Enterprise to impact Ghana (SHE Impact Ghana) was held under the theme: "Formalising the Informal Sector for Economic Development".

Madam Gifty Volimkarime, the Country Manager of Youth Challenge International-Eqwip Hub, said there is the need for the informal sector to pay their taxes but government ought to deliberately develop a policy that defined the distinctiveness of the informal sector.

She said although business are in the informal sector, they are made up of diverse groupings so the current one-fit-for-all policy will not be helpful in retrieving taxes from them.

She said it is critical to pay taxes but government needs to play its role by formalising the informal sector the right way.

Madam Volimkarime urged small business owners present at the conference to aim at formalising their businesses to attract all the benefits that comes with proper tax filing.

Mrs Felicia Maku-Quaye, the President of SHE Impact Ghana, said formalising one's firm means laying down structures and systems that will spur the smooth running of business operations.

Mrs Maku-Quaye, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of Geofel Enterprise, described structures as doing business according to the rules and regulations set out by the relevant authorities adding that it also requires that you document all operations and transactions.

She said formalised business operations would help in attracting investment and also propel them to receive government support.

Mr Andrew Ankrah, Sales Manager at Vodafone Ghana, said data from the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) reveals that the informal sector consists of 80 to 90 per cent of business in the country but only 2 per cent of them paid taxes.

He said government could deploy some of the Nation Builders Corps (NABCo) trainees to follow up on informal sectors to retrieve taxes.

But Mr Joshua Mensah, the Executive Director of IESBD, said the first thing government must do is to structure the informal sector to prepare their books after which they could be easily taxed.

He said everyone recognises the need for the informal sector tax payment since there is too much pressure on formal sector workers.

Mr Mensah said there is the need for government to pump funds into the informal sector to structure them and put them under a system where taxes can be retrieved easily.