Multinationals exploiting Ghana’s weak tax regime – Dr. Akolgo

Former Executive Director of ISODEC, Dr. Bishop Akolgo, has blamed multinational corporations for deepening illicit financial flows (IFFs) in Ghana through complex tax avoidance strategies such as transfer mispricing and profit shifting.

Addressing a stakeholder validation meeting organised by the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) in Accra on June 12, 2025, Dr. Akolgo said Ghana remains dangerously exposed to corporate tax dodging due to weak regulatory coordination and under-resourced oversight institutions.

“Multinationals come with their own systems which are more sophisticated than our local systems. By so doing, they are able to manipulate activities to their advantage. Most of them use transfer mispricing to siphon money into low-tax jurisdictions,” he stated.

Transfer mispricing occurs when multinational subsidiaries set internal prices for goods and services that do not reflect market value, allowing profits to be shifted from high-tax to low-tax jurisdictions. Dr. Akolgo explained that this practice erodes Ghana’s tax base, undermining critical public investments in healthcare, education, and infrastructure.

The event, held to review a draft Media Guide to Illicit Financial Flows, Tax Justice, and Domestic Resource Mobilisation, brought together journalists, researchers, and policy advocates to strategise on improving media coverage of IFFs.

Participants highlighted the need for investigative journalism that exposes how multinational firms in the extractive, telecommunications, and banking sectors exploit Ghana’s weak regulatory framework to avoid taxes.

The upcoming media guide, once finalised, is expected to serve as a crucial tool to help journalists understand and unpack the complex mechanisms behind IFFs, track financial abuses, and hold both corporate actors and public institutions accountable.