Ghana’s 254 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) are legally mandated to provide social services, including sanitation infrastructure and services, to their residents.

MMDAs have full discretion over how they spend internally generated funds. However, of Ghana’s total spending on sanitation, only 2% is raised through domestic public finance.

ANMA is one of the few MMDAs to have introduced a mechanism specifically for the purpose of raising the municipality’s internal funds for sanitation. A flat rate of GHS 5 added to the property tax, this sanitation surcharge has been in effect since 2013. This project analysed the effectiveness of the surcharge in terms of amount collected and disbursed to date, as well as its level of support from the taxpayers and policy-makers of ANMA.