The Minister-designate for Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, Mahama Ayariga, says Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) have the potential to raise close to GH¢20 billion annually from property rates.
He said the revenue could be generated if all properties across the country were properly identified, valued and billed.
Mr Ayariga, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bawku Central, made the projection when he appeared before Parliament’s Appointments Committee in Accra on Thursday, August 27, 2026.
He was responding to questions from the Minority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, on measures he intended to introduce to improve revenue mobilisation at the local level.
Mr Ayariga said the GH¢20 billion estimate was based on “some basic analysis” conducted with experts.
He described the figure as a conservative estimate based on property rates alone, saying other revenue sources such as basic rates, market tolls and lorry park tolls could add to the amount.
He said the Constitution envisaged Assemblies becoming self-financing, with allocations from the District Assemblies Common Fund intended mainly to support development projects such as clinics and infrastructure.
According to Mr Ayariga, the Common Fund was not intended to meet the routine running costs of Assemblies.
He said Assemblies had “largely failed” to meet the constitutional expectation of generating enough revenue to support their operations.
Mr Ayariga said following his nomination, he told the Finance Minister that his ministry could eventually become “richer” than the Finance Ministry if Assemblies fully exercised their revenue-raising powers.
He explained that District Chief Executives had the legal authority to levy rates on properties and residents within their districts, while central government revenue largely came from sources such as VAT, income tax and import duties.
He cited London, New York and Istanbul as examples of cities where local authorities had larger budgets than central government.
Nationwide exercise
To address the low level of property-rate collection, Mr Ayariga proposed building on the existing street-naming and house-numbering programme.
He said the programme largely recorded the location of properties but did not provide enough information about their physical characteristics or value for rating purposes.
He said his ministry would undertake a fresh nationwide exercise to properly identify, describe and value properties so that Assemblies could levy appropriate rates.
Mr Ayariga also proposed digitising the process from property identification and valuation through to billing, payment and disbursement.
He said the system would help prevent the diversion of revenue by local officials.
According to him, District Chief Executives often struggled to collect rates from politically influential people, including traditional rulers and party loyalists who had been given revenue collection duties as a reward for political support.
He said some of the collectors subsequently felt no obligation to account for the money they collected.
Common Fund
On concerns about the Common Fund raised during the vetting, Mr Ayariga clarified that MPs were entitled only to a small parliamentary allocation for constituency emergencies.
He said the allocation was managed through Assembly accounts and was separate from the wider District Assemblies Common Fund.
According to him, the use of the Common Fund was determined by Assembly guidelines and resolutions.
Revenue gap
Mr Ayariga’s GH¢20 billion projection is higher than figures previously published by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), which oversees the Myassembly.gov.gh property-rate platform.
The GRA has said the platform’s billing of more than 10 million identified properties nationwide is expected to generate more than GH¢1.77 billion annually.
The difference between the two figures was not immediately explained during the vetting.
It was also not clear whether the two estimates covered different sources of revenue or were based on different assumptions.
The vetting was held under Standing Order 217 at Parliament House in Accra as part of confirmation hearings for ministerial nominees following President John Dramani Mahama’s ministerial reshuffle announced on August 7, 2026.
Mr Ayariga has been nominated to replace Ahmed Ibrahim, the MP for Banda, who has been reassigned to the Ministry of Works and Housing.
