Newly appointed Commissioner of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Kofi Nti, has asked staff members of the Authority to support him to succeed in his new role.
Mr. Nti made the appeal at a brief handing over ceremony at the premises of the GRA in Accra.
“If the new government will succeed, it depends on revenue mobilization,” Mr. Nti told the staff. “You have done well, but you can do better.”
The tax policy advisor is taking over from Mr. George Blankson who was appointed in 2010.
“We must work as a team with a focus to make the country better, not as staff of the value added tax unit, customs or any other unit,” he noted.
Mr. Nti encouraged the staff members to give off their best, adding “when you work hard, the data will show. I will be marked on whether I raise revenue and you must help me raise revenue.”
The GRA was formed in December 2009 under the Ghana Revenue Authority Act 791.
That led to the integration of four government revenue agencies; namely the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Valued Added Tax (VAT) Service, the Customs Exercise and Preventive Service (CEPS) and the Revenue Agencies Governing Board.
After incorporating the structure and personnel of the four organisations, the position of the Commissioner-General was introduced as the chief executive officer of the authority.
Mr. Nti is a banker, economist, statistician, accountant and tax expert with experience spanning over 30 years.
He holds a combined Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Statistics from the University of Ghana and a combined Master’s degree in Economic and Financial Forecasting from the London Metropolitan University.
He is a Fellow of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Ghana; Fellow of the Association of Chartered and Certified Accountants (ACCA); United Kingdom, and member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation, Ghana.
He started his career as an economist with the Bank of Ghana where he worked in the Development Finance, Rural Banking, Banking Supervision and the Treasury departments.
Mr. Nti left the central bank as the Head of the Treasury Information Statistics Office (TISO) of the Treasury Department where his work involved collaborating extensively with the Research Department, reporting on the foreign currency denominated receipts and payments through the central bank, the Open Position of Banks, and the central bank’s cash flow.
He was the first Secretary of the Foreign Exchange Reserve Management Committee that managed the central bank’s investments and reserves.
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