The Vice President has disclosed that government will soon convert national identification numbers into tax numbers.

Dr Mahamudu Bawumia said government has embarked on leveraging technology to overcome many of the country’s developmental problems and to formalise the economy, and the merger of these numbers will boost these moves.

“Currently, less than two million people are registered to pay taxes, but by the end of this year, we will start converting all the national ID numbers into tax identification numbers.

“Which means we will increase the number of people registered for taxes from about two million to close to 16 million in one year,” the Vice President said.

Dr Bawumia was speaking at a ceremony to officially launch Absa Bank Ghana Limited, formally Barclays Bank.

Barclays Bank has rebranded due to the decision by its parent company, Absa Group to rebrand all its operations in Africa.

This was after Barclays PLC decided to reduce its holding in Barclays Africa. The move gave Barclays Africa the majority stake in Barclays Bank's subsidiaries in Africa. 

Managing Director of Absa Bank, Abena Osei-Poku said the bank will “remain focused on serving Ghanaians with quality groundbreaking financial services and safe investments for their hard-earned money.”