The outgoing Ashanti regional commander of the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) Assistant Commissioner, Kwesi Ahiakpor has been touting the achievement of his office during his stay in the region.
The region under his watch more than doubled revenue target for last year, an unprecedented feat in the region.
Mr Ahiakpor’s command was adjudged the most outstanding among the customs offices across the country considering that in the same year the feat was chalked, the overall collections of the GRA was unimpressive.
Speaking to host Lantam Papanko on the Ultimate Breakfast Show, he indicated that, “The revenue target for last year initially was 287 million and by 30th June, 2016 we had collected 297 and we had finished. But again I told them we are not going to rest on our oars. Let’s do something historic and unprecedented. So it came to pass that come 31 December 2016, this is the record, we had collected 614 million Ghana cedis for the State.”
“I had been told Kumasi had been known as a collection which had under-performed so how come we collected an extra 330 million cedis for mother Ghana,” he questioned.
He however pointed out that it wasn’t easy performing his preventive roles of seizing, re-examining and slapping fines on goods that had evaded taxes through several borders before entering the region but asked leaders in CEPS to ensure that their people have trust in their leadership to further buy into their vision.
Kwesi Ahiakpor popularly known within social circles as the “Swagon Papa” is headed for the Volta Regional command of the Customs division of the Ghana Revenue Authority.