Lighten the tax load – business owners are calling for duty reductions to give local enterprises a boost

Business owners nationwide are urging the government to cut taxes and reassess import duties to help boost the growth and long-term sustainability of Ghanaian-owned businesses.

In an interview with Accra Business News, several operators expressed mixed opinions about business performance over the past year. Some called the period tough, pointing to high taxes, rising import costs, and sluggish consumer spending, while others felt the challenges were significant but still manageable.

Last year’s business wasn’t great. With the change in government and the drop in the dollar, we thought things would improve, but that wasn’t the case. We’re just hoping this year turns out to be successful,” said one business owner.

Another operator shared a more optimistic view, saying, “From my perspective, last year wasn’t too bad. We faced a few challenges, but managed to overcome them, so 2025 turned out alright for my business.”

As the new year unfolds, many business owners say they remain cautiously optimistic. They expressed hope that conditions will improve, particularly if macroeconomic stability is sustained and government policies remain predictable.

According to them, a stable business environment would allow firms to plan better, expand operations and improve overall performance.

“We are praying things will be better than last year. And right now, things are coming down. We are praying that everything will be fine, markets will start going up, and everything,” another business owner said.

The business community has therefore appealed to government to introduce more flexible tax and import duty regimes to ease pressure on local enterprises.

They argue that lower tax burdens and predictable import duty policies would improve competitiveness, support expansion, and create jobs.

“If the government can peg the dollar at a rate that would favour us, not go down, but wherever it is, if they can stabilise it, it will really help us a lot.

“Because if the dollar keeps going up and then inflation goes up and down, it makes it difficult to stabilise our prices,” a trader explained.

Business owners think that closer cooperation between the government and the private sector is key to boosting Ghanaian-owned businesses and fueling long economic growth.

Source: Accra Business News