Brands and Marketing Professional, Cyril-Alex Gockel, has urged the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to channel its corporate social responsibility initiatives into supporting emerging sectors such as the cultural and creative industries.

Speaking at Joy FM’s 7th Showbiz Roundtable hosted by Kwame Dadzie on Saturday, 6th September 2025, Cyril said while it was commendable for the GRA to embark on social responsibility projects, the focus should be on industries like the arts and tourism, which face significant challenges.

“I will humbly suggest that this hundreds of thousands, millions that GRA spends on corporate social responsibility be re-directed in nurturing these new sectors [like the creative arts] which you are targeting for tax revenue to widen the net.

Because it doesn’t make business sense if we are the ones sitting on the 50 billion dollar industry and we are not partners in attaining that goal and GRA can take money to go and supply say shoes to somewhere else, it is a noble cause but I am a strategy guy. If you help me to get 50 billion dollars we will build the shoe factory. So it looks like a misprioritisation from where I stand,” he said.

The event, themed “GRA Vs. Creatives – Taxation and the Future of Ghana’s Creative & Digital Economy”, brought together event organisers, DJs, MCs, artiste managers, bloggers, YouTubers, musicians, filmmakers, fashion designers, visual artists, dancers, comedians and other creative entrepreneurs. Officials from the GRA were also present to engage the creative community on the impact of taxation.

Speakers from the GRA included Isaac Kobina Amoako, Chief Revenue Officer and Head of the GRA IT Training Centre, and Victor Yao Akogo, Chief Revenue Officer at the Domestic Tax Division.

Industry voices present were Kojo Poku, Vice President of the Event and Meeting Professionals Association of Ghana; Francis Doku, Chief Executive Officer of Maestro Africa Group; Robert Klah, Head of Public Events and Communications at Charterhouse; playwright and CEO of Globe Productions Latif Abubakar; poet and literary coach Nana Asaase; and comedian Lekzy DeComic.