The Minister for Communications and Digitalisation (MoCD), Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has said, the comprehensive digital service and revenue collection platform, Ghaana.Gov created to provide a single point of access for government services to the public is a way to move the country’s digital space to higher stages.
According to her, the government is ready to make the services of the platform accessible to all, adding “we are determined to build the digital infrastructure to enable this transformation to succeed.”
“The digitization of the Ghanaian economy through the implementation of these few initiatives is already yielding fruits. The extensive mobile coverage in the country has generated a quantum leap in the use of mobile money transactions. Many of our rural folks have embraced mobile technology as a fast and reliable mode of transacting and paying for services in the comfort of their homes.
“Let’s work together to utilize technology to lift Ghana and Africa out of poverty. We live in unusual times but they also present unusual opportunities such as Ghana.Gov. It truly is DIGITIME!!” she said last Wednesday, July 14, 2021, at the Jubilee House.
Agenda
Mrs Ursula Owusu Ekuful further said the Akufo-Addo led administration had since assuming office been implementing a massive transformation of the country through technology as it vigorously and systematically pursued the digital Ghana agenda.
She said Ghana must evolve quickly in response to the transformation wrought by the Internet and mobile technology, adding that since data had become the new oil, the country must integrate its systems to derive maximum benefits from propositions such as machine learning, block chain, Internet-of-things, big-data analytics and other novel technologies.
To that end, she said, the government was focused on providing the key infrastructure to support the rapid digitisation of the country through projects such as the National Identification Card, the Ghana Post GPS Digital Address system, mobile money interoperability and the GhIPSS payments platform.
“We are also in the process of implementing a rural connectivity project to link the unserved and underserved areas of the country within the next two years. Some four million citizens will be connected to voice and data telephony services in the remotest parts of our country,” she assured.
Launch
The Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, who led the launch expressed the hope that it would help grow government revenue of which between 10 per cent and 15 per cent was estimated to be lost through inefficiencies, theft and other accounting irregularities.
“Going digital means that we can improve our revenue collections by an estimated GH¢3 billion annually. Also, the sheer convenience of enabling all of us to pay for government services with our mobile money, our bank cards, our new GHqr code, our Fintech apps on our phones or at any bank branch, will go a long way in helping increase revenues for government,” he said.
Dr Bawumia added that “Ghana is expected to make savings of some GH¢40 million a year as a result of this platform.”
The Vice-President, therefore, described the introduction of the platform as an important milestone in the digitalisation of the economy of the country and one which would also help realise the vision of the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda of the government.
He said the launch should serve as the catalyst to speed up the addition of all the remaining metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) onto the platform by the end of the year.
About The Platform
Ghana.gov is expected to offer a simplified experience for all government services and also make it easy for everyone to find and pay for government services.
It is available to all citizens, residents and non-residents alike and can be accessed online at www.ghana.gov.gh or by dialing the short code *222# on any mobile phone.
The Ghana.gov consists of four main components, a web portal, mobile app and Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) interface, a payment processing component, a notification component and a complaint submission medium.
Presently, it has the Passport Office, the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), the Lands Commission, the National Service Secretariat, the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), the National Information Technology Authority, the Registrar General’s Department, and the National Schools Inspectorate Authority hooked on to the platform.
The Public Procurement Authority, Data Protection Commission, National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Minerals Commission, the Council For Technical And Vocational Educational Training (COTVET) and the Ghana Post will soon be added.