‘Digital Economy Holds The Key To Unlocking Africa’s Vast Potential And Creating Jobs’ – Bawumia Touts Ghana’s Digital Milestones At Harvard University
Former Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, wowed students of the Harvard University in the United States as he delivered a powerful lecture on Ghana’s digitalization journey.
Speaking to the students on Saturday on the theme “Africa Beyond Borders: A Myth Or A Mandate For Africa’s Progress”, Dr. Bawumia underscored Ghana’s globally acclaimed digital initiatives and its positive impact on the economy.
Dr. Bawumia said Ghana, in the last eight years, has embarked on an ‘‘aggressive policy of digitalization” to ”jumpstart the economic transformation of our country”.
He expounded; “Focus was on digital technology that can solve our problems. At this stage of our development, we are not looking to have driverless cars or humanoids for example.
“We want technology that can solve our problems in agriculture, health, education, access to credit, payment system efficiency, public service delivery, revenue mobilization, and so on. Our system had major shortcomings and presented challenges for the digitalization of the economy.”
Dr. Bawumia noted that, before the start of Ghana’s aggressive digitalization in the past eight years, it was largely seen as a peripheral concern and not central to the country’s national development agenda.
“My focus on digitalization as Vice-President was the subject of ridicule by political opponents. But I stuck to my vision and set out to use digitalization to solve the everyday problems faced by Ghanaians and in so doing build an engine for economic growth and job creation”, the former Vice President testified about his personal role in the progress.
Further explaining Ghana’s digital journey, Dr. Bawumia presented how Ghana has ably addressed many challenges faced by the country using digitalization.
“The most important challenge for our economy as far as digitalization was concerned was that in Ghana, most people couldn’t be uniquely identified. It was possible to be born, live your entire life, die, and be buried in Ghana without there being any official record that you ever existed.”
“Everyday interactions with public services—whether it’s applying for a driver’s license, passport, or any government permit—became difficult. Corruption was so widespread that giving and taking bribes became almost normal.”
“Other significant challenges we faced included: absence of a functional national property address system; A modern economy simply cannot function without a reliable address system.”
Dr. Bawumia also showed how the issuance of Ghana Card to Ghana’s population as well as the implementation of the digital address systems have addressed the lack of unique national identity and national property address system.
Dr. Bawumia highlighted that other digital initiatives such as mobile money interoperability which has resolved the over-reliance on cash payments, thus making Ghana one of the most financially-inclusive countries in the world, the digitalizing public services such as application of passports, drivers licenses, registration of businesses and so forth which has solved the fragmented and manual databases.
Also, the challenge of taking manual records at health facilities addressed by the digitizing health records at government hospitals as well as using Ghana’s world-renowned medical drone delivery service to improve healthcare to patients, especially at remote areas.
Dr. Bawumia added that Ghana’s digital strides have created a pathway for more employment opportunities and boosted businesses.
“The digital payments infrastructure, along with the digital property address system is boosting e-commerce in Ghana and creating jobs.”
“E-commerce is also booming in Ghana. Many sales are now taking place over Instagram, Facebook, websites etc. Many people who cannot afford to rent or build shops are able to do business on the internet at little cost with deliveries helped by digital address and payments using mobile money interoperability.”
He therefore reiterated his call to African leaders to embrace digital technology saying “the digital economy holds the key to unlocking Africa’s vast potential and creating jobs for the youth. By working together, governments, businesses, educators and innovators – we can build a future where every African has the opportunity to thrive and contribute to a brighter tomorrow”.
Source: Ghmessenger.com
