Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia
VICE PRESIDENT Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia says Ghana is now set to move onto the next phase of digitalisation with government’s commitment to build on the current digital platforms, and use data analytics as well as artificial intelligence to provide life-impacting solutions for the ordinary Ghanaian.
In an interaction with a team from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) and Oracle Technologies, led by Tony Blair, former UK Prime Minister, on Wednesday, Dr. Bawumia indicated, “We are determined that Ghana will not miss out on the fourth industrial revolution.”
He used the meeting to discuss opportunities for leveraging Ghana’s leadership role in digitalisation on the African continent to maximise benefits for citizens, local technology firms, and businesses.
UN Roundtable
Earlier on, the Vice President participated in a virtual joint United Nations-World Bank High Level Roundtable discussion, which brought together global champions of data investment.
The participants discussed opportunities in “data strengthening and its significant contributions to development, especially towards delivering on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).”
Addressing the forum, Dr. Bawumia shared Ghana’s acclaimed data investment and strengthening system, and how these are impacting positively on the economic transformation of the country.
He reiterated the country’s commitment to continue its starring role in data investment on the African continent.
Other participants in the virtual joint United Nations-World Bank High Level Roundtable discussion included Carmen Reinhart, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank Group, Mari Pangestu, World Bank Managing Director – Development Policy and Partnerships, and Amina J. Mohammed, United Nations Deputy General Secretary.
Digitalisation Vs Corruption
Early this month, Dr. Bawumia said the digitalisation of various sectors of Ghana’s economy had greatly helped to reduce corruption in the country.
He was speaking at a public lecture organised by the Tertiary Education Confederacy of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) on April 7, 2022, during which he spoke on the economy, and said the e-ticketing  that was piloted for Ghana-Nigeria World Cup qualifying match in Kumasi yielded the highest revenue in the country’s sports history.
He announced that the e-ticketing would be extended to all the major stadia in Ghana, stressing that the digitalisation of the country’s economy had increased revenue mobilisation in many sectors, and pointed to the introduction of the paperless port as one of such.
On the agriculture front, Vice President Bawumia said government’s digitalisation initiative would de-risk the agriculture sector, and build systems that would enable it to expand.
According to him, available data showed that most young people do not consider agriculture as a lifelong career, which they describe as “risky and unprofitable labour and capital-intensive occupation.”
He stated that the digitalisation would help address these concerns of the youth to modernise agriculture, saying, “From the farm to the factory floor, to the office, government is digitising how we collect data, store data, and use data to improve economic activities.”
BY Ernest Kofi Adu