Ghana to have Digital Addressing system by end of year

Ghana will from next year have a functional digital addressing system to unlock the country's e-commerce potential and also boost major economic changes in the country, Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has stated.

Dr. Bawumia revealed this at the 2017 edition of the Ghana Economic Outlook and Business Strategy Conference (EOBS) in Accra on Wednesday, March 22.

The move, according to Dr. Bawumia forms part of measures to enhance easy identification of property which consequently will accelerate trade and businesses as well as grow the country's economy.

“Three pillars of formalization which this government is trying to deal with are; financial inclusion, the National Identification and the Property Identification System and these are the three pillars we want to tackle this year, I’m talking of 2017…”, he said.

The National Addressing system is a structure being adopted by countries to spur online business networking, easy identification of customers and development of on-call services as well as the facilitation and better provision of utility services to citizens. The system also supports the enhancement of security measures, essential rapid response services and the growth of e-commerce in the country.

Speaking at the event under the theme “unlocking Ghana’s economic potential with mobile money and mobile systems, the Vice President stated that the National address system is one key component of economic development in every country aside financial inclusion and the National Identification system.

According to him, the role of the system though underestimated, will go a long way to address major economic challenges facing the country especially with the advent of technology and globalization.

“The role of an address system is usually very underestimated, this is what I call the unwritten rules of the game, in economic development, there are some rules that are not written….this year, we want to do the National identification system and we want to do a digitized addressing system for Ghana, this will allow us to leapfrog even the advanced countries in the context of addressing”.

Dr. Bawumiah promised to spearhead the implementation of the system which he projected will be complete by the end of the year, adding that the benefit of technology and shared experiences across countries will ensure this projection is realized.