‘Ghana, India use technology to leverage dev't
Ghana and India are treading on similar paths in the use of technology to leverage social and economic development of their countries, the Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has said.
He said many of the things India was doing in the digital technology space were aligned to what the government of Ghana had been engaged in since 2017.
In an interview with the media at a Future Investment Initiative (FII) summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, last Tuesday, Dr Bawumia said: “In Ghana, we have embarked on a progressive drive to issue national identification cards to all citizens. The process has started and is expected to complete next year.
“We have also successfully implemented a digital property addressing system that provides physical digital addresses for every five-by-five square metres.”
Dr Bawumia said the combined effects of the national identity cards and digital addresses would ultimately lead to solving the problems of identification and traceability of persons and property in Ghana.
According to him, the interventions would also de-risk the financial sector and help in the economic formalisation efforts of the government.
Forum
The Future Investment Initiative is an international platform for expert-led debate among global leaders, investors and innovators with the power to shape the future of global investment.
Among others, the summit focused on utilisation of investment to drive growth opportunities, enabling innovation and disruptive technologies to drive development, and measures to address global challenges.
Financial sector
Touching on the financial sector and the need for technological innovation, the Vice-President expressed satisfaction with Ghana’s mobile money payments interoperability system which, he said, recorded over one million transactions in September this year, compared to the about 150,000 transactions a month in 2016.
Launched in 2018, the mobile money interoperability system in Ghana has a payment architecture that allows the movement of funds across banks, mobile wallets and other payment platforms such as ezwich.
Dr Bawumia said the conformity of thoughts expressed by speakers at the summit on digital technology served as a new dawn for economic development.
Industrial revolution
The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, who addressed the forum, said there was the need for countries to speedily embrace the Fourth Industrial Revolution as the surest tool to help them leapfrog their development in the ever-changing global dynamics.
He said India’s commitment to leverage technology for accelerated growth was the key to the country’s transformation.
The Prime Minister outlined some initiatives taken by the government of India in their economic digitisation efforts to include the issuance of national identification cards to all Indians, the use of mobile phones as a payment platform, and the establishment of a digital address system.
“Undoubtedly, I do not see how any economy is going to catch up with the rest of the developed world without making deliberate efforts to conform to the contemporary trends of leveraging digital technology.
“The world is fast changing and technological innovations should define what a modern day economy should be,” he added.