Digital identity and address systems made it possible for Ghana’s digitalisation to take off – Bawumia

Vice President and flagbearer of the NPP. Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has underscored the significance of  the digital identity and address systems to modern economies and nations.

Speaking during his campaign tour of Dome Kwabenya Constituency in Accra on Thursday, Dr. Bawumia said developed economies have gone ahead leaving African countries behind, because their economies went digital, adding that, for African countries to catch up, there is the need for African economies to also go digital.

Dr. Bawumia, who has passionately spearheaded Ghana’s remarkable digitalisation drive, said he proposed that African economies should go digital in order to achieve economic transformation, in a book he wrote 14 years ago.

“I wrote a book in 2010 – ‘Monetary Policy and Financial Sector Reforms in Africa” and I made the point that Africa needs to go digital. That if we don’t go digital, we are going to be left behind because the digital revolution is the key for African economic development,” Dr. Bawumia told a diverse audience.

Having written the book six years before he became Vice President, Dr. Bawumia said once he got the opportunity to serve as Vice President, he knew exactly where his focus should be, with the blessings of President Akufo-Addo.

“When I came into office, I focused on one area which is digitalisation of the economy,” he said.

According to him, “I focused on it for a good reason because in the modern economy digitalisation is key to solving a lot of problems not only in Ghana but across Africa.”

Dr. Bawumia, however, added that for Ghana’s digitalisation to successfully take off, a solid foundation needed to be built, because without those foundations, digitalising the economy could not have been achieved, hence his focus on that.

“There are things you have to do first if you want to enter the digital world. First, your citizens must be digitally identified. That’s why we said let us issue the Ghana card and the Ghana Card has been issued,” he said.

According to him, “85% of adults in Ghana now have the Ghana card. We have issued 18 million Ghana cards and that makes Ghana the leading country in sub- Saharan African for digital identity.  Today, even children who are born in Ghana, we are giving them digital identities just as it happens abroad.”

The Vice President added that “We give them an identity number at birth. We have linked that Ghana card with the birth and death registry so that integration of those systems is allowing Ghana to do something that no other country in the world has been able to do.”

Another digital foundation Dr. Bawumia said he focused on, which he noted is essential to creating a digital economy, is digital address system.

“When we came into office, Ghana was not having an address system that was working throughout the country… But an address system is TV one of the most important elements for any modern economy,”  Dr. Bawumia said.

“An address system is so important that today, if you go to the United States and you collapse their address system; just erase it, if you could, that economy will collapse because you can’t function. The businesses cannot function without an address system,” he stressed.

Dr. Bawumia stated that when he remained committed to building these structures for a strong and efficient digital economy for Ghana, many, who did not understand the linkage between digitalisation and economy, questioned what he was doing and also sought to mock him.

“When I started, many people could not understand how digitalisation related to the economy and so increasingly, they are now beginning to understand,” he concluded.