The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Association of Bankers, John Awuah, has lauded the parties involved in the implementation of the e-levy.

According to him, taking into consideration the very limited time the telcos, banks, fintechs, the Ghana Revenue Authority etc had to set up the system for the implementation of the levy, it is remarkable how relatively smoothly the process has been so far.

He admitted that there have been some challenges in the implementation process, but insisted those were bound to happen and would instead offer the parties involved the opportunity to fine tune the system for implementation to address the challenges.

Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express Business Edition, John Awuah, said it would have been significantly helpful if the parties involved in the implementation process had been informed months earlier that the process would be done in a phased approach.

He said, “If you ask me, if the phased approach had been recommended earlier sometime in February or March, if we had gone with that approach, perhaps, the challenges we are having now will be less pronounced. But having said that, if you look at the enormity of this implementation I think the people who have worked on this deserve some pat on their backs.”

He added that the parties working in sync had greatly contributed to the relatively okay implementation of the e-levy.

He is hopeful that with time, the system will be functioning optimally.

“We’re talking about all financial transactions happening on digital channels going through one implementation and all going live on one day. So it tells you that it’s not just the telcos working with GRA to implement the tax, it is not just the banks working with GRA, it is the banks, the telcos the fintechs and all these other players in the ecosystem all acting in sync to ensure that the implementation is successful.

“To me and knowing what I know now, I believe that yes, as with any system implementation you do your post implementation review and you’ll find that there are few areas that you need to tighten, there are things that you thought you should have gone through, and maybe one or two things will drop, but all in all, the parties to this implementation have done quite a good job,” he said.