What Happened
Ghana's tax authority is training its staff in behavioural science, betting that the way officials communicate with taxpayers matters as much as enforcement. The goal is a 360 billion cedi revenue target by 2028. Their position: compliance is not just a legal problem. It is a perception problem, and perception is shaped by communication.
The Communication Angle
Here is the lesson: when you need people to change their behaviour, threatening them is the slowest route. Persuading them is faster. The GRA has figured this out, and most institutions never do.
The GRA is making a smart bet. Enforcement gets you grudging compliance. Communication gets you willing participation. Those are not the same thing, and the gap between them is enormous when you are trying to collect taxes from millions of people. You cannot audit your way to 360 billion cedis. You need people to decide that paying is the right thing to do.
What the GRA is actually doing here is reframing the taxpayer relationship. Right now, many Ghanaians likely experience the tax system as something that happens to them. The GRA wants them to experience it as something they are part of. That shift does not happen through better software or stricter penalties. It happens through language. Specifically, through messages that are clear, respectful, and tied to outcomes people actually care about (schools, roads, hospitals). The moment you connect a tax bill to a benefit the person can see, you change the emotional weight of that bill.
Training officials in behavioural science is the right move because the GRA's frontline staff are the brand. Every phone call, every counter interaction, every letter that goes out is either building trust or destroying it. You can have the best policy in the world and kill it with a condescending tone. The GRA is training its people to understand that how you say something is not decorative. It is functional. It changes whether people comply, complain, or ignore you entirely.
Here is where most organizations fail at this: they run one training, call it done, and go back to old habits by Thursday. Behavioural science communication is not a workshop. It is a standard you hold yourself to every single time you open your mouth or write an email. The GRA will only get the results it wants if this becomes a way of operating, not a box to check.
This is exactly the kind of scenario I break down in Say It Right Every Time. The chapter on audience-first messaging gives you a framework for identifying what your listener already believes and using that as the entry point for your message. The GRA's entire strategy is built on this principle: you do not change people's behaviour by telling them what to do. You change it by speaking to what they already want. That chapter shows you how to find that entry point in any conversation, whether you are addressing a nation of taxpayers or a single difficult client.
Never Be Lost
for Words Again
Get word‑for‑word scripts for the conversations that shape your life, from job interviews and negotiations to difficult talks with family and partners, so you always know exactly what to say and how to say it.
Never Be Lost
for Words Again
Get word‑for‑word scripts for the conversations that shape your life, from job interviews and negotiations to difficult talks with family and partners, so you always know exactly what to say and how to say it.
Key Takeaway
Before your next communication with someone you need to persuade, ask yourself one question: what does this person already care about, and how does my message connect to that? Do not start with what you need. Start with what they value. Then build a one-sentence bridge between their value and your request. Write it down before you speak. That single sentence is the difference between a message that lands and one that gets ignored.
