Govt will pay attention to micro-foundations to grow economy – Bawumia

The government of Ghana will continue to pay attention to the micro-foundations of economic governance to make Ghana develop rapidly, Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has said on Monday 14th October, 2019 during the Financial Times Africa Summit 2019 in London.

Delivering the keynote address at the Summit he said the administration of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is formalising the Ghanaian society by leveraging on technology and digitisation of the system to improve administrative systems and increase transparency.

“Ghana’s digital and inclusive transformation agenda is beyond ensuring the right policy mix, that is, the right mix of fiscal, monetary and external policies. We have decided as a government to focus on how to build a robust micro-foundation of good economic governance. Without these foundational pillars, we will not be successful and will continue to spin in the rut of the weak policy environments.”

He further enumerated some of the digitisation innovations and policies being implemented and how the policies are impacting positively on the economy.

These include “ he introduction of National ID Cards is a game changer. It will form the basis of an integrated database with Passports, Tax Identification Numbers, and Drivers’ Licences etc; Digital Property Addressing has provided every location with an address leveraging on GPS. The process of tagging 4 million houses with digital addresses is on-going and should be completed by the first quarter of next year.

“A biometric national identity and a digital address uniquely establish personal and immovable property identity; Digital drivers’ licenses and digital vehicle registration have been implemented and this has eliminated the intermediaries or middlemen and corruption at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority.

“Mobile money payments interoperability has been implemented. There is full interoperability of mobile wallets across various telcos as well as between mobile wallets and bank accounts; Drones and decentralised delivery of health services and also digitising hospital records to improve the efficiency of healthcare delivery.

“The digitisation of the Registrar General’s department which has made the registration of businesses easier; Paperless ports; and Digitisation of court records and processes.”

He assured the gathering that : “The government will continue to pay attention to the micro-foundations of economic governance to make Ghana develop rapidly.”