Nóminas en Ghana: una actividad reservada

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.

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.