All national ID numbers to become tax numbers from April - President Akufo-Addo

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo says starting April 1, 2021, all national identification numbers will become Tax Identification Numbers (TIN).

He said when his government first assumed office in 2017, it was faced with largely an informal economy.

He explained that the government decided to formalise the country's economy by embarking on a digitisation exercise.

He noted that after four years in office, there had been progress in all areas in the formalisation of the country's economy.

President Akufo-Addo, while delivering the 2021 State of the Nation Address (SONA) in Parliament in the afternoon of Tuesday, March 9, 2021, said the country's economy has become more formalised under his watch than any government since the country's independence.

He explained that through the National Identification Authority (NIA), more than 15 million Ghanaians had been registered, an exercise he said will greatly improve the country's digitisation drive. 

The President also noted that the national identification cards will be turned into tax identification numbers, beginning April this year.

President Akufo-Addo said when the national ID numbers are converted into tax numbers, it will increase the number of those registered with the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) for tax purposes from three million to 15.5 million.

He said, for instance, that at the end of 2017, only 715,000 Ghanaians had tax numbers, saying "the increase to 15.5 million is simply phenomenal."

In a related development, President Akufo-Addo said beginning second quarter of this year, all national ID numbers will also become SSNIT numbers.

That, he explained, will increase the number of people on the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) database from four million to 15.5 million, making it easier for new contributors to be listed on SSNIT's database.