The Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has explained why the government has over the past seven years embarked on an aggressive digitalisation of the Ghanaian economy.
Speaking at the 20th edition of the Ghana Club 100 Awards in Accra, on Friday, Dr. Bawumia explained that government inherited a largely informal economy, which had made it possible for certain ills which hindered the transformation of the Ghanaian economy to be perpetuated for years.
“Before you can build an economy that is going to be transformational, policies that are going to be transformational, you need to take care of major problems that are in the informal economy,” Dr. Bawumia said. “When we came into office, we were facing some major challenges in the area of the informal economy.”
Dr. Bawumia added that an informal economy allows society to look undisciplined with “no significant consequences for bad actions.
“You have a society where corruption prevails, you have lawlessness, you have a tax dodging society, you have an unbanked society, you have a loan repayment society, identity fraud, that is people assuming the identities of others or fake identities, lack of address systems, age cheating, fake insurance, fake birth certificates, no passport, ghost workers on government payroll, etc.”
These ills of the informal economy, Dr. Bawumia stressed, makes it difficult for the economy to transfer to its potential.
“That is why we set out to formalise the economy and to make sure that the economy worked on transparent systems. And that area of formalisation of the economy, we relied heavily on digitization of the economy to formalise it,” he explained.
On this journey of formalising the Ghanaian economy through digitalisation, Dr. Bawumia said: “we have been moving very steadily and we have made a lot of progress in this particular area.”
Dr. Bawumia also highighted the significant role the Ghanacard has played in the formalisation of the economy.
“Of course, the anchor for this digitalisation programme has been the Ghana Card that we issued. And today, we have enrolled over 17 million people on to the Ghana Card. We have linked all bank accounts to the Ghana Card, linked all SIM cards to the Ghana Card, your tax identification number is your Ghana Card, your NHIS number is your Ghana Card, we have linked the Ghana Card number to the Controller and Accountant General Department payroll.”
“Today, we are seeing this increasing formalisation of the economy, as a result of digitalisation and we are digitalising government services through Ghana.Gov and so on.
“What all of this is doing is that it is bringing formalisation and transparency and that help businesses. It makes the systems clearer, it reduces corruption because you can apply for services, buy electricity, get a licence, get a passport, without going to meet anyone who will ask for bribe.”
Having made significant progress so far, Dr. Bawumia stressed on the need for the economic transformation to happen, just as is the case in many developed economies.
