Vice President Dr Mahammudu Bawumia has asserted that Ghana in the next two years – 2023 – will become the most digitalised economy in Africa.
The Vice President’s assertion comes on the back of concerted efforts made by government to digitalise and formalise all areas of the economy.
Delivering the keynote address at the 5th Ghana CEO Summit on Monday, the Vice President averred one of the biggest challenges that has confronted the Ghanaian economy has been its highly informal nature along with the manual, bureaucratic and cumbersome processes involved in the delivery of government services which increases the cost of doing business in the country.
According to him, the overarching objective of government’s digital drive agenda is to increase government revenue, fight corruption and ultimately provide public services to citizens more efficiently and conveniently.
“We had a situation where over 90 percent of the population had no unique identity, no working address system, over 70 percent of eligible citizens had no bank accounts, most transactions where cash based and less than 10 percent of had TIN. Clearing goods at the port was a nightmare, while these set of facts have long been recognised, no government has taken systematic and concerted efforts to address them, we just lived with the problem rather than try to solve it,” stated the Vice President.
“But the current government has made efforts to address the chronic problems of the economy by digitising the economy and government services. The overarching objective of the digital drive is to increase government revenue, formalize the economy, fight corruption and ultimately provide public services to citizens more efficiently and conveniently.”
“Ghana is clearly on its way to become the most digitalised economy in the next two years,” he added.
Addressing the CEOs present at the Summit, the Vice President urged them to rethink and reorient their businesses and not hold onto the old things as their businesses would not survive in the post covid economy.
He further urged the CEOs to enhance their business operations with digital technologies and to drive business information and survival, adding notions of sustainability and long term value maximisation must be at the core of governance and operations of businesses.
“I will charge all decision makers of businesses to forge key partnership that will constitute a formidable force in our bid to reset businesses and the economy, the fight is against a common enemy and not ourselves.”
“Exchange of ideas and resources is cardinal if we are to emerge victorious from the negative conditions created by the pandemic,” averred the Vice President.
The 5th edition of the Ghana CEO Summit was organised under the theme Resetting Ghana’s Economy: Policy Response & Strategies for Building a Resilient Economy Post-Covid Pandemic.
