Ghana is moving to the next phase of its digitalisation agenda in a bid to fast-track socio-economic development of the country.
Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia who announced this said government has shown enough commitment to build on the current digital platforms and use data analytics and artificial intelligence to provide life-impacting solutions for ordinary Ghanaians.
Dr. Bawumia said this when he met with a team from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) and Oracle Technologies led by Tony Blair, former UK Prime Minister.
“Yesterday, I received at the Jubilee House, a team from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) and Oracle Technologies led by Tony Blair, former UK Prime Minister, 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,” he posted on Facebook.
“I noted that Ghana is now set to move on to the next phase of digitalisation with our commitment to build on the current digital platforms and use data analytics and artificial intelligence to provide life-impacting solutions for the ordinary Ghanaian,” he added.
Vice President Bawumia is optimistic Ghana will not miss out on the fourth industrial revolution which comes with enormous benefit.
“We are determined that Ghana will not miss out on the fourth industrial revolution”, he reiterated.
Vice President Bawumia who is spearheading government’s digitalisation drive told CNBC Africa last year that the introduction of digital initiatives will serve as a major instrument for economic transformation and also propel social inclusiveness.
According to him, leadership had tended to focus on crisis management and had not focused on the underlying system that drives economic activities.
“Generally, the horizon is so short, you are in office for four years. And if you don’t put the country ahead of your own political exigencies, you will do what gets you elected. I will build the bridge and I can point to a bridge or build a road and I can point to a road. And so you are in that type of mode of economic development.
“But if you have to put in the systems for digitisation, that infrastructure is soft infrastructure. You’re building a national ID, building a digital address system. You’re doing all sorts of things that may not be visible, but are more important in that mode, but it takes time to manifest the benefits.”
Digitalisation agenda
The Akufo-Addo government has introduced some interventions such as mobile money interoperability, digital renewal of National Health Insurance, implementation of the digital address system among others.
These, according to government, have significantly improved the economic and social lives of Ghanaians even though there are still harsh living conditions in the country.
