Former Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has been vindicated globally on the need for African countries, particularly Ghana to digitalise their economies to accelerate growth and development.
This is because the 2025 World Economic Forum (WEF) has underscored the pivotal role of digitalisation in Africa’s economic transformation, declaring the digital economy as crucial for the continent’s development.
Dr. Bawumia had been a staunch adherent of putting in place digital structures to drive the economic transformation of Ghana, an agenda, he advocated over 14 years ago.
The former Vice President in his 2010 bestseller ‘Monetary Policy and Financial Sector Reform in Africa – Ghana’s Experience,’ extensively delved into monetary policy on the African continent and the need for reforms to ensure economic transformation on the African continent through
He recommended reforms, after diligently touching on all hindering issues, focused on digitalisation of African economies, which he said will be achieved on three main pillars, namely: unique and verifiable national identification numbers, digital address systems and financial inclusion, which would bring on board the unbanked members of the informal sector.
Digitalised economy to generate $1.5 trillion
The WEF projected that a fully digitalised African economy could contribute approximately $1.5 trillion to the continent’s GDP by 2030, driving transformative change across key sectors.
From improving agricultural productivity through precision farming to enhancing government services, healthcare, education, and environmental sustainability, the consensus at the WEF was that Africa’s digital economy is not just the future, it is the catalyst for sustainable growth and development across the continent.
Accordingly, Dr. Bawumia vigorously spearheaded the implementation of the digital economy policy in Ghana when he became the country’s Vice President from January 7, 2017 to January 6, 2025.
Global summit
During a four-day summit of this year’s World Economic Forum, attended by over 60 world leaders and global economic giants, discussions centred on pressing global issues such as economic growth, climate change, and emerging technologies.
A special session dedicated to Africa reached a consensus: adopting emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and digitalised economies, is critical for the continent’s progress.
Urgent need for digitalisation
President of Botswana Duma Boko at a roundtable discussion with the Secretary-General of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), Wamkele Mene, participants agreed on the urgent need for a digital African economy to accelerate development and create opportunities for the continent’s youthful population.
Mr. Boko emphasised the importance of digitalisation in addressing Africa’s challenges.
“The adoption of digital technology, which I describe as ‘the language of young people,’ is the way forward to addressing many challenges,” he stated.
AfCFTA digital trade protocol
On his part, AfCFTA Secretary-General Wamkele Mene, revealed that Africa’s heads of state would adopt the Africa Digital Trade Protocol next month, a significant step towards advancing the continent’s digital economy.
“We have established the protocol on digital trade. The last instrument of that protocol will be adopted by our heads of state next month in Addis. The protocol on digital trade responds exactly to what the President has just said,” Mr Mene explained.
Underscoring the innovative potential of Africa’s youth, Mr Mene noted, “By the year 2050, Africa will have the youngest workforce in the world. Those jobs will have to be created intra-Africa. We will not be able to import jobs from somewhere else. Africa’s digital economy is a very, very important aspect of intra-Africa trade.”
Tackling payment challenges
Mr Mene also raised concerns about Africa’s fragmented payment systems and called for seamless payment interoperability across the continent, another agenda Dr. Bawumia had been promoting in Ghana.
“The issue of payments, for example. I live in Ghana. There is a direct flight to Nigeria. When I travel to Nigeria, I take my direct flight. But when I send money, it goes somewhere else. We need a seamless interoperable payment system in Africa to address this challenge of youth unemployment,” he said.
The AfCFTA Secretary-General also emphasised the importance of investing in digital public infrastructure, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and emerging technologies to foster youth entrepreneurship and attract trade finance.
Ramaphosa’s support
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa also affirmed the importance of digitalisation.
“The digitisation of the continent, particularly when it comes to artificial intelligence, will enhance trade and development, and they are key enablers that we want to see fully developed,” he remarked.
Bawumia’s core beliefs
Dr. Bawumia has always indicated that a key ingredient which underpins financial transaction in any society is trust.
He however noted in his book that trust is very low in Ghana’s financial transactions due to lack of database to properly identify people, unlike in developed countries where every individual is identified with a unique national identification number.
Accordingly, Dr. Bawumia noted that the only way to curb this is to have a unique national identification number for the people, which can be easily authenticated both “online and offline.”
Address System
Dr. Bawumia wrote about the importance of a system of property addresses, but added that it “is probably one of the most underestimated requirements for the development of an economy and its financial sector.
Stressing on the importance of addressing system in an economy, Dr. Bawumia wrote, “one can imagine what would happen if for example, the address system in the United States, United Kingdom, South Korea or Japan disappeared overnight. These economies would basically grind to a halt because so much depends on residential or business addresses.”
He, therefore, recommended that countries like Ghana, should, as a matter of priority, put in place a comprehensive address system, arguing that the absence of address system also “increases the risk premium bankers attach to a loan.”
Financial Inclusion
Dr. Bawumia called it “banking the unbanked” in his book.
He observed that “the financial system cannot develop to its potential and monetary policy cannot be effective if the majority of the population continues to be excluded from access to financial services.”
Having acknowledged the role, the Bank of Ghana’s e-switch platform was playing in bridging the financial gap as far as banking was concerned, Dr. Bawumia recommended the use of mobile phones to deliver mobile banking service within Bank of Ghana’s regulatory framework.
Unwritten rules
Dr. Bawumia in the concluding parts of the book, said the recommendations he outlined; were some the unwritten rules for effective fiscal policy and financial management, as well as for general development.
“A unique Identification number, an address system and financial inclusion (banking the unbanked) are basically some of the key unwritten rules for effective monetary policy and financial sector development in particular and over all development,” Dr. Bawumia wrote.
“Without these systems and institutions in place, no monetary policy framework will be sufficient in the long run to engender the type of financial sector that will be critical in the growth process. No donors have thus far required that countries put in place address systems, unique IDs, etc. in place as conditions for aid for example.”
Walking the talk
Just as he recommended in his highly revered book, Dr. Bawumia, as Vice President and head of Ghana’s Economic Management Team, followed to the letter the principles he preached in his book, leading to the massive digital transformation of the Ghanaian economy.
Within four years of the NPP administration between 2017 and 2021, Ghana has a unique and verifiable national identification card, a digital property address system and financial inclusion of the unbanked through mobile money interoperability.
Through these pillars, just as Bawumia predicted in his book about 14 years ago, there has been a digital transformation with many government services going online, thus bringing relief to people in accessing services, and also helping in the fight against corruption
