Acting Director of Finance at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), Andrews Denteh, has disclosed that the Authority will digitize its operation via its biometric card and other technology to address the issue of illegal operators.

According to him, this will help prevent illegal operators in the system and also boost revenue for the country.

“There were problems where people would come up with their own number plate and sometimes duplicate number plates and I can tell you that part of the digitization process will help us deal with the challenge.

“We believe that, with the use of technology and collaboration with our stakeholders, the police and so on, all these leakages will be blocked and the necessary revenue will come to the DVLA or the state”.

Digitization helps fight corruption

Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia in January 2020, revealed that digitization of the economy will help in the fight against corruption.

As such, government “will talk about the digital economy” through its embarkment on a major digitization exercise. The exercise, Dr Bawumia explained, is “already yielding fruits” which will transition Ghana “as far as digitization is concerned”.

The Ports, Lands Commission, Ministry of Tourism and the Passport Office were few state agencies that migrated to digital platforms to enhance efficiency.

The Vice President indicated that corruption is non-existent at these agencies due to digitization.

“If you go to the ports today, we have curbed corruption at the ports. If you go to DVLA we have curbed corruption because of digitization. NHIS is the same in terms of digitizing the hospitals so it is a very important aspect of the fight against corruption.

“We have implemented the e-justice programme at the court. We have automated the court so the issue of missing dockets that used to be a problem has been addressed.”

The Vice President also indicated that the government is putting in place “a lot of policies to help deprived communities.”

Digitized licensing plates

A year prior, the management and Board of DVLA introduced high security and digitised trade licensing plate with the aim of improving efficiency and security.

A statement issued by the DVLA said the introduction will also improve revenue generation at the ports on imported vehicles. This was part of its mandate to contribute to the overall government agenda of digitizing the economy.

“Notwithstanding the increased security of the system and process improvements, the cost of acquiring a DP Licence remains unchanged at GHC 154.00”.

It said the upgrade of the DP Licence from the current insecure metal plate to a secure electronic DP STICKER is also to enable the DVLA to introduce cutting edge technology to the management of the DP License.

The statement said the upgrade will ensure that those intending to fake the DP Licence will not be able to do so.

It said the digitization is part of the DVLA’s long-term plan to secure the entire vehicle registration regime in the country and ensure that it meets acceptable standards.