Managing partner at Konfidants, Michael Kottoh has expressed the impact of the recent revenue mobilisation exercise by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) on bigger supermarkets in the country.

Mr. Kottoh disclosed that the GRA’s recent revenue drive revealed an interesting trend where traditional retail is beginning to recover and reclaim the market share the biggest supermarkets had taken away from the sector some years back.

Speaking during the third forum of this year’s Citi Business Festival on Citi TV, on the topic ‘The Changing Face of the Ghanaian Retail Market,’ Mr. Kottoh said the traditional retail sector is taking a positive turn as a result of the trend.

“Even though the biggest supermarkets and online [platforms] are taking off, they are not necessarily adversely impacting the traditional retail market, it is so resilient. Traditional retail is beginning to take advantage of online to extend its market reach is beginning to get wider again.

“We have also seen traditional retail beginning to recover some of the market shares that they were beginning to lose to the big supermarkets and the biggest driver of this trend is the recent aggressive drive by the GRA to tax the biggest supermarkets so a lot of price-sensitive shoppers are beginning to return to the traditional retailers because that is basically a low and zero taxed retail segment and that is reinforcing the resilience of traditional retailers.”

About the Citi Business Festival

The annual Citi Business Festival is a month-long initiative marked with on-air and outdoor events in the month of June to equip Ghanaian businesses with strategies to grow and scale up while meeting emerging trade and commerce trends.

This year, it is themed generally around the Made it Ghana Agenda.

There are live radio on-air series at 9:05am every Monday to Thursday on the Citi Breakfast Show on Citi FM. On Fridays however, it airs at 7:10am.

Aside from the on-air series, there will be weekly forums on Citi TV every Tuesday to hold discussions on the theme for the week as well as special TV feature stories aimed at showcasing indigenous Ghanaian businesses.

The Citi Business Festival 2023 is powered by Citi TV and Citi FM in partnership with Absa Bank and is proudly sponsored by MTN MOMO, MTN Business, and Zeepay with support from GIRSAL.