Fake tax collectors bleed Accra traders dry

For 32-year-old market trader, Edna Ayittey, the memory remains raw. Two men in crisp white shirts approached her stall in Accra, flashed official-looking paperwork, and accused her of a licensing infraction. They demanded cash on the spot.

Fearing she could lose her stall, Ayittey handed over her day’s sales in exchange for what seemed like an official stamped receipt. Weeks later, she learned the receipt was counterfeit.

“We thought we were paying our taxes to support the country,” she told The Fourth Estate. “But it turned out we were only feeding somebody’s pocket.”

Ayittey’s story is not unique. Between late 2022 and 2023, dozens of hawkers and small shop owners across Accra fell prey to a network of men who posed as municipal revenue collectors. Sometimes flanked by armed guards, they demanded cash, handed over forged receipts, and disappeared.

What appears at first glance as a small-time scam is, in fact, a systemic leakage. Traders, auditors, and officials interviewed for this investigation describe an illicit trade that thrived below the public radar for years.

On a recent reporting visit, the bustle of Agbogbloshie market was unrelenting: the sharp calls of tomato sellers, the smoky aroma of fish, and the shuffle of porters weaving through narrow aisles with goods stacked high on their heads. In that chaos, a trader lowered her voice to confide: “What’s striking is that, despite years of warnings, these scams are not relics of the past they are resurfacing in markets week after week,” she said, pleading anonymity.

The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) publicly admitted as far back as 2018 that, fake tickets were in circulation, after angry vendors presented bogus receipts to radio stations.

In one case, AMA’s internal auditors caught two revenue collectors using counterfeit booklets with identical serial numbers at two different markets. They pocketed GHC500 – although small – before they were arrested.

“If just GHC500 was taken by a single collector’s scam, multiple such incidents could easily amount to thousands of cedis lost over months,” a market woman in Madina told The Fourth Estate.

Many victims, fearing intimidation or confiscation of their goods, chose silence.

At Kaneshie, a food vendor spoke in hushed tones as she ladled stew into plastic bowls for a lunchtime crowd. “Just last month, I lost money to men who said they were from the Assembly. We are scared to talk.”

And at Dome, where heavy rains turned alleys into streams and traders huddled under makeshift tarpaulins to keep their wares dry, a stallholder shook her head. “Last year, I paid GHC30, the only receipt they gave me was a plain piece of paper, with the amount I paid to them boldly written on it.

I paid because I didn’t want trouble. But it never ends.”

Officials, however, insist that such practices are not sanctioned. The Accra Metropolitan Assembly has repeatedly warned that it does not condone unauthorised levies and encourages victims to report impostors to the nearest office or police station.

“This is a significant issue, probably underreported, because the motivation to pay taxes is low… the compliance framework, especially at the local level, is complex,” Selorm Branttie, Vice President, IMANI Africa, told The Fourth Estate.

Why traders stayed silent

The Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) insists it never received mass complaints, a sign the racket targeted the most vulnerable: informal operators such as food vendors, street hawkers, and stallholders who fall outside formal associations.

“These traders often lacked digital literacy, have little recourse to legal protection, and fear challenging men who claim to be backed by the state,” GUTA President, Joseph Obeng explained.

Three weaknesses enabled the fraud: Ghana’s reliance on cash-based transactions, the ease of forging official paperwork, and regulatory blind spots.

Until recent reforms, many municipal collections were still paper-based. That created fertile grounds for impostors to demand payments into private mobile-money accounts or present counterfeit tickets.

Forging official receipts is easier than most people realise. In past AMA cases, fake receipts carried authentic serial numbers, making them difficult to detect. Identity badges and official stamps have also been leaked or counterfeited, officials quietly conceded.

Internal checks exist: field collectors are meant to report to supervisors, who reconcile cash against issued receipts. But those systems are powerless when impostors operate outside the official chain – and when victims do not report incidents.

What the law says, and fails to enforce

Under Section 124 of the Local Governance Act, 2016 (Act 936), Ghana’s Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) are authorised to collect fees, licences, and rates. The law makes it a criminal offence to issue unauthorised receipts, punishable by fines or imprisonment.

The Revenue Administration Act, 2016 (Act 915) also criminalises false receipts, while the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921) requires public officers to safeguard state revenues.

Yet prosecutions are rare. Beyond a handful of rogue AMA staff arrested in 2011, there have been no significant cases against impostors. The result is impunity.

This racket is a symptom of a larger structural problem. Ghana bleeds billions each year from weak informal sector taxation.

A 2024 World Bank analysis estimated that Ghana loses about 3.9% of GDP per year due to tax exemptions and similar revenue “leakages”. A study by the Ghana Statistical Service emphasises that  the informal sector employs nearly 80% of the country’s workforce but contributes only 27% of GDP.

A representative 2022 ICTD–WIEGO–ISSER survey of 2,700 informal enterprises in Accra shows high levels of taxation burden and under-reported revenues in the informal sector. Weak compliance systems, corruption, and scams like the fake collectors deepen the shortfall.

Experts such as Prof. Peter Quartey of ISSER have warned that such scams deepen the gap between potential and actual revenue, arguing that such high levels could encourage evasion.

Official records on revenue lost to impostors are scarce.

Authorities push digitalisation – but gaps remain

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and AMA have tried to plug the loopholes. Both institutions have rolled out policies discouraging cash payments.

At a recent enforcement exercise at Kantamanto Market in July 2025, the Mayor of Accra, Michael Kpakpo Allotey, reminded traders to be vigilant.

“Don’t allow anyone to deceive you. Always make sure you take your receipt after paying. We have two main tickets, one for revenue collection and another for waste collection. If anyone demands more than GHC2 or presents unfamiliar tickets, don’t pay,” he cautioned.

The GRA now insists that taxpayers use electronic platforms, including the government portal and the *222# mobile code. Its public warning is blunt: any officer demanding cash is likely a fraudster. The authority has repeatedly issued scam alerts, including a July 2023 notice denying any official link to a reported “fake tax registration and collection” in Accra and stresses that taxpayers must use only approved channels; it has “not authorised any third parties apart from the over 20 designated banks” to collect taxes.

Crucially, the GRA’s response has emphasised consumer warnings over compiling official statistics on revenue lost to impostors.

AMA, meanwhile, has campaigned to remind vendors that the official daily market toll is GHC2 in Accra. “Make sure you take your receipt after paying,” posters read.

Tax lawyer, Francis Timore Boi applauds the effort. “Since GRA’s ‘no cash payment’ policy, the potential for people corrupting the system will reduced,” he noted. But he added: “The most informal vendors hawkers, roadside food sellers, market porters remain vulnerable if they cannot or do not use digital channels.”

AMA revenue accountant, Reginald Tetteh, explained the safeguards: “Each field collector is supposed to report to a supervisor… routine checks, compare receipts to cash remitted.” Yet, he admitted, “Someone will always try to bypass the system.”

New tools such as QR-coded receipts and market helplines are being piloted. But adaptation will take time.

The human cost

For hawkers, the impact is brutal. Victims lose more than money; they lose trust.

“This is why people don’t trust the system,” said Ayilom, a 54-year-old stall owner in Dome Market. “You pay and pay, but nothing shows.”

For business owners living hand-to-mouth, a coerced payment can mean missed rent, reduced stock, or unpaid utilities. In extreme cases, products seized under dubious “penalties” were never returned.

IMANI’s Selorm Branttie, who studies informal-sector governance, emphasised the scale of the problem and the central role of public education.

“I believe that one of the biggest things is public education and communication, as well as a clear idea, public examination on which officials should be trusted and which shouldn’t,” he said.

The psychological scars – fear of authority, scepticism of official processes – linger long after the money is gone.

“The move to cashless collections is crucial,” Timore told The Fourth Estate. “But education is the key: explain the rules via TV, radio and in-market training so impostors have fewer victims.”

Ayittey, the market trader duped by white-shirted men, agrees – but with caution. “If you tell me to pay with my phone, I will if I know how,” she said. “Because no one taught me.”

As Ghana battles a widening fiscal deficit and looks to expand its tax base, protecting small traders from fraud is no longer a marginal issue. Each fake receipt represents not only a stolen day’s labour, but also another nail in the coffin of public trust in taxation.