The Country Manager of Invest In Africa(IIA), Sam Brandful, has stressed the need for Ghanaian Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to be tax compliant in order to secure partnerships with multinational companies.
He attributes the relative low levels of partnerships among local and foreign businesses to the instances of tax defaults.
Already, the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has cautioned that from next year, all tax defaulters will be denied access to visas, passports, driver’s license as well as operate a successful business.
Mr. Brandful told Citi Business News SMEs can grow if they demonstrate a high level of tax compliance.
“We all know that talking about taxes is not the favourite of most SMEs but we need to get them to understand that paying taxes is not just an obligation but it has a purpose and for working with bigger multinationals and bigger Ghanaian companies you will need to demonstrate that you are a tax payer before you can even do the business so as part of your business growth agenda you must be interested in knowing issues about taxation,’’ he explained stated.
Mr. Brandful made the assertion at an IAA programe in partnership with African Partner Pool (APP) to help SMEs develop pragmatic investment ideas.
APP which is an online portal is Ghana’s first cross sector online business directory that connects larger international and Ghanaian Companies to local, small and medium businesses.
Some SMEs who have benefited from APP lauded the company for giving them opportunities, as well as training in relevant business areas.
According to them, the platform has linked them with multinationals and bettered the standard of their products, given them a larger market base.
“Basically from the APP, we have been linked with multinationals , through tendering for some of their contracts we have gotten to know the kind of standards that they require and that has helped us to be able to work within the organization to deliver the kind of standards that they require”, a beneficiary said.
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)
