The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has urged governments and anti-graft agencies in Africa to consider using digitalization tools and technologies to check corruption.
Speaking at the 14th Commonwealth Regional Conference of Heads of Anti-Corruption Agencies in Africa, organised by the Economic and Organised Crimes Office (EOCO), Dr. Bawumia highlighted bribery, revenue leakages, and organised crime as key corrupt activities besetting most countries in Africa, resulting in the loss of billions of dollars.
According to him, the strategy for combating corruption should involve both individuals and networks that promote activities that allow participants to enjoy the results without any hindrances.
“We must begin to recognise that corruption is an entire ecosystem with its own, for want of a better word, value chain.”
“To make the kind of quantum progress we all wish for, our approach to fighting corruption must begin to focus on, in addition to individuals, the networks and their range of activities that nurture, facilitate, and enable participants to enjoy the proceeds thereof, unhindered,” he asserted.
Dr. Bawumia reiterated the possibility of using digital tools and technologies to deal with corruption, whether individualised or networked.
He explained that digital technologies can be used to identify people, digitise access to services, track money, and detect suspicious activity, a section of which he observed has already been rolled out in Ghana.
The Vice President said that with a biometrically enabled Ghana Card, corruption can be fought by linking individuals’ bank accounts, SIM cards, and tax records, among others, with the Ghana Card to prevent and detect cyber crimes.
“By providing all Ghanaians and resident foreigners with biometrically enabled identity cards, the GhanaCard, we have enabled anti-corruption and law enforcement agencies to properly track corrupt individuals and how they hide the proceeds of their crimes. The Ghancard is linked to people’s bank accounts, SIM cards, mobile money accounts, tax records, drivers and vehicle licensing records, national health insurance records, pension records, payroll records, etc. to prevent and detect cyber crimes,” he said.
Additionally, he submitted that digital technology can aid in the digitization of access to services that track revenue and prevent revenue leakage, thereby reducing human involvement and bribery opportunities.
Current services, he mentioned, that are being enabled by digitalization include the conversion of Ghana Card unique IDs into Tax Identification Numbers (TIN), which established Ghana.Gov platform, passport acquisition, paperless port system, DVLA services, scholarship applications and processing, and the payment of utilities.
On the use of digital technology to track money and suspicious activity, Dr. Bawumia revealed that the introduction of the e-Cedi, a Central Bank digital currency, will “make it easy to track the movement of money and identify suspicious activity and provide us with a high level of transparency, reduce the risk of fraud, and reduce the level of tax avoidance and money laundering.”
Dr. Bawumia further disclosed the revenue and cost-savings impact the rollout of the Ghana Card and Ghana.Gov platforms have had on the country.
He revealed that the Ghanaian government has significantly benefited from digitalization, including doubling the number of passports issued between 2018 and 2023 and increasing revenue by eightfold, from GH₵12 million to GH₵94 million.
The use of GhanaCards and biometric audits has also led to the removal of 29,000 ghost pensioners from the national pension scheme and 44,707 ghost workers from the National Service Scheme payroll, resulting in total savings of GH₵356 million, according to him.
For the Ghana.Gov platform, the Vice President revealed that it has enabled the government to collect GH₵201 billion in revenue electronically since 2020.
The Vice President also intimated plans to integrate databases using X-Road infrastructure and apply blockchain technology to government data to ensure its integrity.
“Our goal is to make Ghana the first blockchain-powered government in Africa and one of a few countries in the world,” he added.
Free trade using digitalization
At the same event, Dr. Bawumia also presented the benefits of digitalization to current efforts for a free trade area.
“We need to harmonise a lot of our digital technologies; our databases should be interoperable so that if you arrive in Namibia from Ghana, for example, you should be able to find the Ghana ID database from Namibia. Similarly, we should be able to interrogate your database from here to determine whether the person is from Namibia or another country.”
Describing them as “unwritten rules of the game,” he asserted that although harmonisation of activities on the continent using digital systems is paramount, international bodies such as the IMF and World Bank would ordinarily not recommend them to African countries.
Dr. Bawumia posited that having biometric identification systems across African countries will ensure that the informal sector is roped into the economy to take advantage of opportunities while contributing their quota to development.
“If you would need to develop, your population must be identified uniquely. Otherwise, you are operating in a highly informal sector.”
“How do you bring your continent together if you have 70% of your people who do not have bank accounts or access to financial services? That is why we developed mobile money interoperability. But if the systems that we have in Ghana and that we have in other countries are all interoperable across the continent, then it is easier for African Continental Free Trade to be given its full meaning.”
The Executive Director of EOCO, Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo Danquah, on behalf of the Association of Anti-Corruption Agencies in Africa, expressed her gratitude to the government for facilitating the organisation of the conference two years ahead of time.
The conference, which began on Monday, May 6, 2024, brought delegates of various anti-corruption bodies from across the continent to deliberate on the theme, “Strengthening Institutions and Promoting Transparency: A Means of Fighting Corruption in Commonwealth Africa.”
*****
Never miss out on the news. Get your valuable breaking news and other vital content by following The Sikaman Times on WhatsApp Channel
*****
