The network covers Ghana within the West Africa region. Payslips there are drawn up in GHS, and dealings with a local firm are conducted in English.
The business centres where the network is looking for a correspondent as a priority are Accra, Kumasi, Tamale, Takoradi.
The country lies outside the European Union and outside the European Economic Area: the A1 certificate has no standing there. Whether the employee remains in the scheme of origin then depends on the bilateral social security agreement, if any, concluded with the sending country; where no such agreement exists, dual affiliation must be expected and budgeted into the assignment.
The answer to this question changes everything: it determines to whom you may entrust your payslips locally, and what you must ask for before signing. It has been verified country by country with the local authorities.
In Ghana, running payroll on behalf of third parties is a regulated activity. It is carried on under the title of Chartered Accountant (CA Ghana) — Public Practice Licence, and a registration in force must be produced to you before any engagement.
Le Chartered Accountants Act, 2020 (Act 1058) reserve la pratique publique de la comptabilite contre remuneration aux membres titulaires d'une licence de l'ICAG ; le cabinet doit etre enregistre au Ghana et compter un citoyen ghaneen parmi ses associes principaux. La paie seule n'est pas explicitement nommee dans la loi, mais les prestations de tenue comptable et de declarations fiscales qui l'accompagnent le sont.
Ghana is a common law jurisdiction whose economic administration has modernised markedly, with registries and online portals that are now dependable. For a foreign company, English as the official language and the sole language of contracts removes the translation difficulty found elsewhere in the sub-region.
Employee social protection is organised in tiers. The first, mandatory, is administered by the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) and pays basic pensions. The second, also mandatory, is entrusted to licensed private managers operating individual accounts. A third, voluntary tier completes the arrangement. Foreign employees engaged locally are affiliated, subject to the transfer rules that apply when they leave.
Salaries are paid in cedis, through the local banking system, and payslips are issued in English.
Payroll for third parties falls within the regulated perimeter of the Chartered Accountants Act 2020: public practice of accountancy for reward requires a licence issued by the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana, and the firm itself must be registered.
Two separate steps open the social side: employer registration with SSNIT, then the selection of a licensed manager for the second tier. Foreign employers frequently overlook the second, and the omission only surfaces at the first inspection.
Upstream of that, the Office of the Registrar of Companies, which took this function over from the former Registrar General's Department, registers the entity; the Ghana Revenue Authority then issues the tax identification number. Employing in Ghana presupposes both.
The company's expatriate quota, the work permit and the residence permit are addressed as a whole, since the capacity to employ a foreign national is tied to the level of investment recorded for the company.
Beyond a minimum period of employment a written contract is required, setting out the essential terms of the role. Grading, working time, leave and termination rules are checked at that stage, including the duty to give prior notice in a collective redundancy.
Under the PAYE regime, income tax is withheld and remitted monthly to the Ghana Revenue Authority, while contributions to the first two tiers follow their own calendar. The payslip must make clear which tier each deduction belongs to, since employees increasingly ask.
The cessation filing, the final settlement and, for an expatriate, the consequences for the permit and for the quota under which it was granted close the file.
The network asks 9 documents of any firm wishing to represent it in Ghana. The table gives, for each of them, the exact wording in use locally, the body that issues it and the period during which it remains admissible. These are the terms to use in an application to the local administration.
Of these 9 documents, 9 are required of every applicant and 6 have a limited period of validity, the shortest being 3 months. 1 of these documents exist only in Ghana and have no equivalent in the common core of the network.
| Local wording | Issuing body | Validity | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Certificate of IncorporationCertificate of Incorporation Delivre une seule fois lors de la constitution sous le Companies Act 2019 (Act 992) ; joindre aussi la Constitution de la societe si elle en a une. | Office of the Registrar of Companies (ORC) — anciennement Registrar General's Department | No expiry Required | Official website |
| Annual Return / Business Registration RenewalAnnual Return filing L'ORC exige un depot annuel ; l'accuse de depot le plus recent prouve que la societe est toujours en regle (in good standing). | Office of the Registrar of Companies (ORC) | 12 months Required | Official website |
| Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) / VAT Registration CertificateTaxpayer Identification Number / VAT Registration Certificate Le TIN des personnes morales est delivre par la GRA ; pour les personnes physiques il est desormais confondu avec le PIN de la Ghana Card. | Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) | No expiry Required | Official website |
| Tax Clearance Certificate (TCC) / electronic Tax Clearance Certificate (e-TCC)Tax Clearance Certificate La GRA precise que le TCC n'est valable que pour la periode et l'objet mentionnes sur le certificat lui-meme ; exiger un e-TCC de moins de trois mois. | Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) — Commissioner-General | 3 months Required | Official website |
| SSNIT Clearance CertificateSSNIT Clearance Certificate Atteste que l'employeur est a jour du premier pilier (13,5 % a la charge de l'employeur) ; les 2e et 3e piliers relevent d'organismes prives agrees par la NPRA. | Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) | 3 months Required | Official website |
| Professional Indemnity InsuranceProfessional indemnity insurance certificate Obligatoire par la loi pour les cabinets titulaires d'une licence de pratique : article 43 du Chartered Accountants Act, 2020 (Act 1058). | Assureur agree par la National Insurance Commission (NIC) | 12 months Required | Official website |
| Public Practice Licence / Non-Audit Practice Licence (ICAG)ICAG public practice or non-audit practice licence Article 34 de l'Act 1058 : exercer la comptabilite pour le public contre remuneration sans licence est un delit. La licence expire le 31 decembre de chaque annee et se renouvelle. | Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana (ICAG) | 12 months Required | Official website |
| Ghana Card (National Identification Card) ou passeportGhana Card or passport La Ghana Card est exigee pour toute demarche au registre et aupres de la GRA ; un passeport est accepte pour les dirigeants non ghaneens. | National Identification Authority (NIA) | No expiry Required | Official website |
| Data Protection Registration CertificateData Protection Commission registration certificate Enregistrement obligatoire pour tout responsable de traitement au titre du Data Protection Act, 2012 (Act 843) ; le certificat est valable deux ans et doit etre renouvele. | Data Protection Commission (DPC) | 24 months Required | Official website |
Several recent changes tend to unsettle files assembled from a distance, beginning with the companies register changing hands: extracts are now issued by the Office of the Registrar of Companies rather than the Registrar General's Department. The Certificate to Commence Business, for its part, disappeared when the Companies Act 2019 took effect; a candidate producing one is offering a document that predates the reform, which is not irregular but does date the file.
Now issued electronically, the Tax Clearance Certificate can be verified directly on the Ghana Revenue Authority portal, making the check immediate rather than a matter of correspondence.
The tax identifier, finally, has been merged with the number shown on the Ghana Card. Older files therefore carry a TIN and newer ones an identifier drawn from the national card: both references coexist and create confusion that is easily anticipated by asking for both at the outset.
Le Registrar General's Department a ete scinde : depuis 2020 c'est l'Office of the Registrar of Companies (ORC) qui tient le registre des societes, ne pas se tromper d'organisme. Le Certificate to Commence Business a disparu avec l'entree en vigueur du Companies Act 2019 (Act 992) : un candidat qui le presente detient un document anterieur a 2020. Le e-TCC a remplace le TCC papier depuis 2023 et se verifie en ligne sur le portail de la GRA. Attention a la double appellation TIN / Ghana Card PIN qui cree de la confusion dans les dossiers.
The network opens 3 partner slots in Ghana, not one more. No firm is listed there yet: all 3 slots therefore remain open to applications.
No listed partner in Ghana has asked to appear in the public directory. The contact details of a firm are passed on to the client only when an assignment is awarded.
Filing an application does not amount to admission: every request is reviewed one by one. There is no minimum turnover requirement, and the partner selected invoices its fees directly.
Submit an application: we review your file, we check the documents required on the ground and we give you an answer, whether it is positive or not.
A Ghanaian candidate firm must hold a current Public Practice Licence from the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana, the firm being established in Ghana with a Ghanaian citizen among its principal partners. We ask for the Office of the Registrar of Companies extract together with the annual return, the tax identification number, the electronic Tax Clearance Certificate verifiable online, the SSNIT Clearance Certificate, and the certificate of registration with the Data Protection Commission, which is here a legal obligation rather than a matter of good practice.
Describe your requirement. No firm is listed in Ghana yet: we review the request, then entrust it to a local firm that the network identifies and vets, or to the partner of a neighbouring country covering this territory. Your contact details are passed on to the selected firm alone.
Request a provider in GhanaMobility is rarely arranged one country at a time. The neighbouring profiles follow the same outline.
These countries account for most of the requests received: each one has, in addition to its profile, six pages devoted to a single aspect of local payroll.
The information gathered on this page comes from the registers, administrations and bodies listed below, consulted when the reference base was compiled. It is given for guidance and does not replace the advice of a professional established in Ghana.