Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia says the Akufo-Addo administration has the goal to make Ghana the hub of digitization in West Africa.

According to him, this goal will be achieved if Ghanaians will renew the mandate of the New Patriotic Party in the upcoming presidential elections in December, 2020.

He said this in a live interview on Accra-based radio station, Peace FM's morning show ''Kokrokoo'' on Tuesday.

Dr Bawumia is spearheading the digitization agenda of government to formalise and transform Ghana's economy and further bring about inclusion.

The Vice President in February, 2020 launched a mobile application designed to make the purchase of electricity credits and the payment of bills more convenient for customers of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

Known as ‘ECG Power’, the app, designed in-house by the ICT staff of ECG, will make it possible for 2.8 million out of the company’s 3.8 million customers to make payments for power purchased and services rendered by the company. This figure is expected to rise by the end of the year when old metres are replaced with smart ones.

Other digital initiatives include the introduction of Zipline Technology, a medical drone programme which is helping in healthcare delivery especially in the hard-to-reach communities of Ghana; introduction of a Paperless Port system which has reduced the turn-around times at the country’s ports; the digitisation of DVLA to eliminate corrupt practices, the introduction of a Digital Property Addressing System, issuance of a National ID Card and the provision of banking services to every resident of Ghana through the innovative Mobile Payments Interoperability platform.

Background

So far Rwanda has billed itself as Africa's leader in complete digitization. For the past 15 years, the country has been working to digitize its education, healthcare and economy, and now it is pushing to be Africa's first cashless society in the public sector; it is already paying its government employees electronically, according to un.org.

African countries such as Senegal, Uganda, Tunisia, Morocco, Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt and South Africa are also with the most tech hubs in the continent.