National Transaction Monitoring and Revenue Assurance
Case study overview
Adecore supported the design and implementation of a national programme that enables government to monitor digital transactions, calculate applicable taxes and strengthen collection at the point of payment.
- Tax legislation, investment policy and technology implementation aligned
- Transaction-level tax-at-source architecture designed
- Three-month implementation pilot successfully completed
- Payment providers, banks and digital operators integrated
- Unique transaction-level traceability introduced
- Automated tax calculation and reconciliation enabled
- Central monitoring dashboards and audit trails established
- Architecture extended towards e-commerce and digital services
Government could see declarations, but not always the transactions
Traditional tax collection depends heavily on merchants accurately recording sales, issuing tax invoices, submitting periodic returns and remitting the correct amount to government.
This creates a delay between the taxable transaction and the revenue authority’s ability to verify it. Where records are incomplete or transactions are under-declared, the authority must rely on audits, physical inspections and retrospective enforcement.
The result is an expensive administrative model requiring separate teams to manage small, medium and large taxpayers. It also creates opportunities for inconsistency, revenue leakage and misconduct while placing compliant businesses at a disadvantage.
The growth of e-commerce, digital platforms and offshore service providers made the challenge even more complex. Transactions could occur within the economy without government having a reliable, real-time view of their value or the resulting tax obligations.
Adecore Corporate Advisory: connecting legislation, investment and technology
Adecore acted as the corporate advisory bridge between government stakeholders, the revenue authority and the specialist technology providers.
Our role was to ensure that legislative requirements could be translated into an implementable operating and technology model. This included:
- Interpreting government and revenue-authority requirements
- Aligning tax legislation with transaction-processing rules
- Educating departments and critical stakeholders
- Developing technology implementation roadmaps
- Coordinating technology providers and government teams
- Supporting internal reviews and approval processes
- Defining institutional roles and responsibilities
- Advising on operator and payment-provider onboarding
- Aligning the programme with domestic and foreign investment priorities
- Supporting implementation governance and change management
The objective was not simply to introduce another tax platform. It was to create an operating model through which legislation, payments and revenue collection could function together.
From legislative obligation to executable collection
Tax legislation already established the government’s right to collect applicable taxes. The challenge was turning that legal entitlement into a consistent digital process.
Adecore helped stakeholders determine how tax rules could be translated into transaction logic, reporting requirements, operator obligations and system integrations.
This created a roadmap connecting policy decisions with payment service providers, acquiring banks, digital operators and existing government tax platforms.
Tax collection at the point of transaction
The technology was designed to operate as an integration layer between digital merchants, payment service providers and the revenue authority.
When an eligible transaction occurs, the platform can:
- Identify and certify the transaction.
- Apply the relevant tax rules.
- Calculate the tax due.
- Direct the tax component to the nominated government account.
- Release the remaining value through the normal merchant process.
- Record the complete transaction for reporting and reconciliation.
Each transaction is assigned a unique identifier, creating traceability throughout its lifecycle and reducing the risk of duplication, omission or retrospective manipulation.
Real-time monitoring and revenue assurance
The platform provides government with visibility into transactions as they are authorised, processed, declined or reconciled.
Central dashboards can present:
- Total transaction value
- Tax collected by transaction
- Tax collected by operator and sector
- Merchant and operator activity
- Successful and failed transactions
- Integration and system status
- Reconciliation differences
- Unusual or suspicious activity
- Complete user and system audit trails
Alerts can be generated when transactions or reporting patterns fall outside agreed thresholds, allowing government teams to move from broad physical enforcement towards targeted, intelligence-led intervention.
Integration with the national payment ecosystem
The programme required integration across payment service providers, acquiring banks, merchants, digital operators and government systems.
Secure application interfaces were designed to exchange transaction data and connect with existing tax applications and other mandated government platforms. This allowed the solution to complement internal government infrastructure rather than operate as an isolated system.
The integration model also provided a pathway for onboarding domestic and non-resident digital service providers into a common compliance environment.
Supporting institutional adoption
Technology implementation was only one part of the engagement.
Adecore assisted government departments and critical stakeholders in understanding how the new model would affect existing responsibilities, approval processes, reporting practices and relationships with private-sector operators.
The implementation programme covered:
- Regulatory and operational scoping
- Payment-provider and merchant onboarding
- System and hosting design
- Integration planning
- Testing and quality assurance
- User-acceptance testing
- Departmental training
- Change management
- Cutover and operational support
This helped establish the internal understanding and institutional ownership required for sustainable implementation.
Extending beyond a single industry
Although the first use case focused on gaming and betting transactions, the infrastructure was designed as a wider national capability.
The same model can be applied to eligible transactions across:
- E-commerce marketplaces
- Digital services
- Online subscriptions
- Platform-based businesses
- Cross-border digital merchants
- Regulated online industries
- Other transaction-based government charges
The sector-specific implementation therefore became the foundation for a broader digital-commerce taxation and revenue-assurance programme.
Successful delivery of a national pilot
The programme delivered the transaction-monitoring architecture, implementation framework and institutional foundations required for tax collection at the point of payment.
A three-month pilot was subsequently reported as successfully completed. The Revenue Authority announced plans to extend the model to online purchases and digital services, with automated VAT calculation and remittance occurring when the customer makes payment.
Analysis of 2025 transaction activity indicated that the model could potentially have generated more than GH¢2.5 billion in additional revenue had it been applied across the identified online transaction base. This figure represents estimated revenue potential—not tax already collected.
The Sentinel platform has since been publicly identified as part of the Revenue Authority’s wider digitalisation programme for monitoring e-commerce and platform-based transactions.
More than tax collection. Strengthening investment through fairer enforcement
Revenue assurance is not only about increasing government collections. It can also create a more predictable environment for responsible domestic and foreign investors.
When all eligible operators are subject to consistent transaction-level rules:
- Compliant businesses are not disadvantaged by under-reporting competitors.
- Tax obligations become more predictable.
- Compliance can require less manual intervention.
- Government gains stronger evidence for policy decisions.
- Enforcement can focus on actual risk and abnormal activity.
- Digital businesses can enter the market with clearer operating requirements.
This establishes a more transparent relationship between government, investors, merchants and citizens.
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How intelligence
becomes impact
Understand Reality
We look beyond the immediate brief to understand the wider system, its evidence, stakeholders, constraints, dependencies and human consequences. We begin with reality, not a predetermined answer.
Make Evidence Visible
We distinguish what is known, inferred, assumed and still uncertain. This gives decision-makers the clarity to act with confidence grounded in evidence, not confidence alone.
Define the Better Future
We establish the outcome worth pursuing and the impact it must create. Human, economic, institutional and environmental consequences shape our work from the beginning.
Structure Responsibility
We align governance, capital, commercial logic, decision rights, risk and ownership. Ambition becomes executable when responsibility is clear and commitments can be honoured.
Integrate Capability
We assemble advisory, technology, research, delivery and strategic partners around the outcome. The client experiences one accountable institution, not a collection of disconnected services.
Execute with Accountability
We turn decisions into operating capability, building systems, deploying infrastructure and delivering programmes while keeping progress, risk, evidence and responsibility visible.
Measure what Matters
We measure more than activity or commercial return. We examine whether people benefit, institutions become stronger, economies gain capability and resources are stewarded responsibly.
Leave Capability Behind
We transfer the knowledge, ownership, systems and confidence required for the work to endure. Our responsibility is to leave every institution more capable than we found it.