Digital Addressing System – One year on

Poor or non-existent addressing system has, over the years, conspired with other activities to derail the development of the country.

Most of the time getting goods and people from one point to another has represented a major challenge, and in places where the location has no definite name or when the destination points are incorrect or inaccurate, the challenge has been far greater.

In an era when goods are ordered and bought on the Internet and couriered to destination points, the poor addressing system of the country has prevented the people from taking advantage of this modern mode of making purchases and selling.

The absence of a reliable addressing system has also had serious effects on emergency service delivery. There have been numerous cases where emergency service personnel have had to roam the length and breadth of an area for hours when there are attacks on people and disasters such as fire outbreaks.

The least said about the effect of the absence of an addressing system on the financial sector, the better. Very ambitious entrepreneurs have had their dreams cut short because they were not able to access the required funds from the banks. Some had gone through all the necessary processes but at the point of house address the banks had dragged their feet because they could not offer loans or start-ups to people whose addresses were not reliable.

In fact, high interest rates in the country have partly been attributed to the poor addressing system.

Many Ghanaians, therefore, welcomed the initiative to launch a digital addressing system last year with hope and the Daily Graphic commends the authorities for the success so far achieved.

Indications are that the system is fast catching up with the populace, as the address is required for certain transactions in the country. Already, according to Ghana Post Company statistics, the National Property Addressing System had been downloaded more than half a million times and about 7.5 million people also used the app to search for locations in the country, a year into its launch on October 18, 2017.

Some private security organisations have also made it part of their operations, while other citizens have been using it to share direction with courier service providers. This means by and by it is catching up with the populace, while they are enjoying some of its benefits. And as Ghana aims at a cashless society, among other indicators of a modern society, we believe the digital addressing system is one surest way to catapult that desire.

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The Daily Graphic, therefore, asks the initiators of the system to continue with the education to get more Ghanaians to download their addresses. We also encourage the media to devote some airtime and space to educate citizens on the numerous advantages the nation is set to derive from the system.

We assess that a lot of achievements have been made so far from the addressing system, although more needs to be done. But to consolidate the feat chalked up thus far, we call on the Ghana Post Company to intensify education on how to get one’s exact address, as the common concern has been the generation of multiple coordinates depending on which area of a house one picks the address.

Ghana Post should also endeavour to expedite action on how to tap the emergency services onto the system in order to improve the country’s emergency response.