National ID, digital address, e-certificate will transform economy - Bawumia

Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has stated that the impact of National ID Card, the National Digital Addressing System and the Electronic Certificate on the economy will be transformational.

Speaking at the launch of the Electronic Certificate in Accra by the Registrar General Department Thursday, he said, “with the registration of a businesses, the Addressing System will be used for the registration of citizens and non-citizens living in Ghana by the National Identification Authority.

This will make it easy for the Registrar General’s Department to have ID numbers linked to traceable addresses for the ease of identifying the residential addresses of business owners and the location of their businesses.

Financial inclusion with interoperability will bring more unbanked Ghanaians into the banking sector”

He said President Akufo-Addo’s vision is to make Ghana the most business friendly nation in Africa and that the dream starts with the Registrar General’s Department.

“In line with this, I paid a surprise visit to the Registrar General’s department in March this year to find out where we are in pursuit of this vision. People I spoke with during my visit complained about the length of the turnaround time.

I therefore asked the Acting Registrar General to improve the turnaround time for business registration and speed up the process of going online with business registration. The online payment system was fixed after my visit in March. A new initiative was launched to make it possible for businesses to be registered within 2 days,” Dr Bawumia said.

He explained that the initiative dubbed: “Three-year Business Regulatory Strategy,” is aimed at modernizing the quality of Ghana’s legal and regulatory systems to promote faster growth, job creation and economic prosperity.

“Prior to this initiative, obtaining a certificate to commence business could take about two weeks. Presently commencement certificates are issued simultaneously with incorporation certificates reducing the turnaround time for business registration,” the vice president said.

Dr Bawumia said Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s administration has embraced digital transformation and will lend his (President Akufo Addo) support to ensure the smooth operation of this process for improved customer satisfaction.

According to him, the importance of ICT cannot be overstated in this 21st century and Ghana will leap frog to catch up whenever the opportunity arises.

He therefore urged staff and management of the Registrar General’s Department to intensify their stakeholder engagement programs through the use of all available channels, including print and social media to build consensus to enhance its revenue operations and boost revenue collection.