The Ghana Revenue Authority’s win points to how the taxman is trying to talk to taxpayers, not just collect from them.
The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), the state body responsible for collecting taxes and customs duties, has been named Public Relations Organisation of the Year 2025 in the public sector category.
The award was given by the Institute of Public Relations, Ghana (IPR Ghana), the professional body for public relations practitioners in the country, at its Excellence Awards. The ceremony formed part of the 2026 National PR Summit held in Koforidua in the Eastern Region from October 22 to 24.
What the summit covered
The three-day gathering pulled together public relations professionals and other stakeholders for conference sessions, paper presentations and the institute's Annual General Meeting, according to the Ghanaian Times. The Excellence Awards, which close out the event, are used to recognise notable work within the profession.
Why the GRA was picked
The citation points to the Authority's use of professional communication and strategic messaging in carrying out its work. The GRA is a corporate member of IPR Ghana, and a number of staff in its Communication and Public Affairs (CPA) Department belong to the institute as individual members.
For a revenue agency, communication is not decoration. The GRA's public education work is tied directly to voluntary tax compliance
dash; getting people and businesses to file and pay without enforcement action
dash; as well as managing relationships with the media, taxpayers and the wider public, and explaining its policies and operational changes.
The Deputy Commissioner in charge of Communication and Public Affairs, Mrs Florence Asante, framed the award as a vote for investing in communication staff.
"Public Relations is much more than publicity; it is a strategic management function that builds trust, strengthens stakeholder relationships and supports organisational objectives," she said.
She added that the recognition underlines the need for the expertise of communication professionals to feed into management decision-making.
Why this matters beyond the trophy
The GRA sits at a sensitive point in Ghanaian public life. Every change in tax rates, levies or filing rules lands first on ordinary traders, salaried workers and businesses, and confusion about those changes tends to translate quickly into resistance or non-compliance.
That makes the Authority's ability to explain itself clearly a practical matter rather than a cosmetic one. Clear, timely information reduces the number of people who fall foul of rules they did not understand.
For Ghanaians living in the United States and elsewhere abroad, the GRA is often the institution they deal with on property-related taxes, customs duties on shipped goods, and clearing items at the ports. Those interactions depend heavily on whether the Authority publishes accurate guidance that reaches people who are not physically in the country.
The award covers the 2025 performance year. The Ghanaian Times report does not indicate which other institutions were shortlisted in the public sector category.
