Living in a state of comfort is definitely part of the aspirations of people irrespective of gender, status, religion or creed.
Although comfort is subjective, there’s always a bottom line for people in determining what makes them glee in joy, or perhaps fade into depression simply because a need has not been met.
The status of people in a country are in a way linked to the rate at which a country develops simply. When the right policies are put in place to bolster employment and conducive environment created to help bloom indigenous businesses and the private sector, things begin to naturally bloom.
Technology has a way of helping a country and certainly a group of people develop to their fullest potential simply because development comes in many forms and one of the ways is through digitization and technological advancement.
Ghana seems to be on a technological drive, especially with the tech ‘Wizkid’ on the block in the person of Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.
Over the course of the years, he has been a strong voice and advocate to transitioning Ghana to a technologically buoyant economy.
He has highlighted the positive impact of the government’s digitalization agenda on the Ghanaian economy.
The NPP flagbearer stated that the government’s digitalization agenda is tackling corruption in government services like passport acquisition and port clearance by reducing human intervention through the Ghana Card identity system.
Furthermore, Dr Bawumia also recognized the crucial role of the private sector in economic development and iterated the government’s commitment to creating an enabling environment for businesses to thrive.
In spite of the desire of the Vice President to ensure every sector of the economy is being transformed by technology, there have been some roadblocks in achieving that.
Developing right measures to streamline informal sector with technology
Speaking on the challenges encountered within the informal economy, Dr Bawumia insisted that if one looks at the economy in the informal sense, it has become “undisciplined”.
He lamented that the society is undisciplined because the economy is informal and there are no consequences for bad actions.
“… 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 dodging society, identity fraud, people assuming identities of others, lack of address systems, age cheating, fake insurance, fake birth certificates, fake passports, no functional address systems, ghost workers on government payrolls.”
Dr Mahamudu Bawumia
Meanwhile, the Vice President emphasized the need to resolve the challenges within sectors of the economy to help include every sector of the economy into the field of technology.
“These ills of the informal economy that we really inherited made it very difficult for the economy to transform to its potential. That is why we set out to formalize the economy to make sure that the economy works in a transparent system. That area of formalization of the economy, we realized heavily on digitalization of the economy to formalize the economy.”
Dr Mahamudu Bawumia
Confronting the challenges within the informal sector have become more pronounced than ever before – not because of the delay it is having on the economy but the general wellbeing of Ghanaians as well.
As it stands, although Ghana has made some strides in digitalization, digital literacy is still low as it is in many developing countries.
As such, digitalization has the potential to leave people behind. Nonetheless, it seems to be increasing, due in part to the digitalization of informal businesses.
For instance, UNDP reveals that drivers of digitalization in Africa – startups, corporations, and policymakers—are advised to support efforts to increase digital literacy, build infrastructure, and integrate digital products and familiar offline activities.
In respect of this, there is more room for growth for Ghana’s technological drive and all the necessary elements must be put in place to expedite that.
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