We're using digitalisation to bring sanity into corrupt, undisciplined informal sector we inherited – Bawumia

One of the areas that can help Ghana's private sector "immensely is to transition from the informal economy that we have in many countries, especially in Ghana," Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia has said.

Speaking at the 20th edition of the Ghana Club 100 Awards on Saturday, December 9, Dr Bawumia said: "When we came into office, we were facing some major challenges in the area of informal economy", noting: "Before you can really build an economy that is going to be transformational, you need to take care of major problems that are in the informal economy".

“You look at an economy in the informal sense which turned to be undisciplined, the society is undisciplined because the economy is informal and there are no consequences for bad actions; you have a society where corruption prevails, you have lawlessness, you have a tax-dodging society, you have an unbanked society, you have a loan repayment-dodging society, identity fraud, people assuming identities of others, lack of address systems, age-cheating, fake insurance, fake birth certificates, fake passports, no functional address systems, ghost workers on government payrolls", he outlined.

He said: “These ills of the informal economy that we really inherited made it very difficult for the economy to transform to its potential".

"That is why we set out to formalise the economy to make sure that the economy works in a transparent system", the flagbearer of the governing New Patriotic Party said, adding: "That area of formalisation of the economy we realised, heavily on digitalisation of the economy to formalise the economy".

“This is why we have been moving steadily and we have made a lot of progress in this particular area."

"Of course, the anchor for the digitalisation programme has been the Ghana Card that we issued", he pointed out.

"Today, we have enrolled over a 17 million people on the Ghana Card. Today, we have linked all bank accounts to the Ghana Card, and linked all SIM cards to the Ghana Card. TIN is your Ghana Card number. NHIS number is your Ghana Card number. Today, we have linked the Ghana Card to the Controller and Accountant General Department payroll. Today, we are increasing this formalisation of the economy, as a result of digitalisation, we are digitalising all government services through Ghana.gov.gh and so on".

“All these bring transparency and that helps businesses, it makes the system clearer, and it reduces corruption because you can get services without actually going to meet anybody who will demand a bribe,” Dr Bawumia said.