The government has pursued a digitalisation agenda for the past seven years to formalise the Ghanaian economy, according to the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.
The government, he said, inherited a largely informal economy, which enabled some practices that impeded the economic transformation of the country.
Therefore to implement policies that will transform the economy, the government needed to address the major issues in the informal economy.
According to him, one of the challenges the government faced when it came into office was the informality of the economy.
Dr. Bawumia noted an informal economy makes society appear to look undisciplined with ‘no significant consequences for bad actions.’
Speaking at the 20th Ghana Club 100 Awards in Accra on Friday, the Vice President said, “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 society, identity fraud; that is people assuming the identities of others or fake identities, lack of address systems, age cheating, fake insurance, fake birth certificates, no passport, ghost workers on government payroll, etc.”
These ills of the informal economy stressed, make it 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 worked on transparent systems. And that area of formalisation of the economy, we relied heavily on digitization of the economy to formalise the economy,” he explained.
On this journey of formalising the Ghanaian economy through digitalisation, Dr. Bawumia said: “We have been moving very steadily and we have made a lot of progress in this particular area.”
Dr. Bawumia also underscored the significant role the Ghana card has played in the formalisation of the economy.
“Of course, the anchor for this digitalisation programme has been the Ghana Card that we issued. Today, we have enrolled over 17 million people to the Ghana Card. We have linked all bank accounts to the Ghana Card, and linked all SIM cards to the Ghana, your tax identification number is your Ghana card. Your NHIS number is your Ghana card. We have linked the Ghana card number to the controller and Accountant General Department payroll.”
“Today we are seeing this increasing formalisation of the economy as a result of digitalisation and we are digitalizing government services through Ghana.Gov and so on.”
“What all of this is doing is that it is bringing formalisation and transparency and that helps businesses. It makes the systems clearer, it reduces corruption because you can apply for services, buy electricity, get a licence, get a passport, without going to meet any who will ask for a bribe.”
Dr. Bawumia stressed the need for the transformation to continue for economic transformation to happen, just as is the case in many developed economies.