Government’s agenda of digitalisation being spearheaded by Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has been predicted to soon put Ghana ahead in the digital and technology entrepreneurship race in Africa.
Through the Vice President’s efforts, Ghana has been touted to become the hub of digital and technology entrepreneurship on the continent and help the government to drastically reduce the rate of youth unemployment.
Market/Advertising Psychologist & Licensed Industrial Organisation (I/O) Psychologist, Mr Razak Kojo Opoku who made the prediction stated that the digital and technology entrepreneurs would also assist the government to transform the socio-economic architecture of Ghana, compete fairly with other global digital and technology entrepreneurship platforms such as Amazon, Tencent, Alibaba, Microsoft, Apple etc.
Every modern economy and society, he said, is developed through the concept of digitalization and digitization.
“Digitalization is transforming the ways in which industries, businesses, agricultural products, general goods and services are marketed, distributed, traded, delivered and consumed in an increasingly digitized economy and marketplace globally and Ghana is not an exception.”
Online marketing, trading, shopping, banking and e-commerce have become the mainstream channels for consumers. Products, goods and services are moving from tangible mediums to digital ones,” he said.
According to him, in Ghana the sustainability of government flagship programmes such as the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ), and One-District-One-Factory (1D1F) would largely depend on digitalization, and how the ministries and companies involved in the programmes are able to effectively and efficiently adopt digital technologies to promote and market their products and services to the local, African and Global markets for profits.
He averred that the easy accessibility and availability of the products and goods from the 1D1F and PFJ at the marketplace through digitalization, the greater the profits and sustainability of the programmes.
Mr. Razak Opoku argued that in an increasingly digitized economic environment, companies and industries that are established around the concept of digitalization create trillions and billions of dollars to support the national economy in terms of jobs and wealth creation.
“Digital, internet and technology-driven companies such as Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Tencent, Visa, Mastercard, Facebook, Alibaba and Twitter etc. are economic giants in their own capacity, having economic growth and financial impact greater than the entire economy of African countries.”
“This is one of the main reasons why Akufo-Addo’s government through Dr. Bawumia is doing everything possible to, first of all, formalize and change the Ghanaian economic architecture through Digitalization/Digitization,” he added.
He observed that though Dr. Bawumia’s efforts and commitment, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government is capable of rolling out a comprehensive programme on digital, internet and technology entrepreneurship leading to the creation of world-class digital and technology entrepreneurs.
This new crop of entrepreneurs, he said, would be able to provide the needed platforms to market, distribute, trade and attract the needed investments aimed at ensuring the sustainability of the government’s flagship programmes, especially the 1D1F and the PFJ that were envisioned, initiated and implemented by President Nana Akufo-Addo.
