President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has assured that the government of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is poised to elevate its digitalization efforts to unprecedented heights in this year, emphasising his administration’s commitment to digital transformation.
The President gave the assurance while delivering the State of the Nation Address (SONA) in Parliament yesterday. He underscored the pivotal role played by Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, in spearheading these initiatives over the past seven years.
“Thiis year, we are taking things to a higher level. This Government, after all, is the Digitalisation Government, and the man who has led the entire digitalisation process these past 7 years, my indefatigable Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Dr Digitalisation, the NPP’s excellent presidential candidate for the 2024 election, is coming up with what will allow everyone and anyone to check on every project being undertaken by the government without having to listen to the President’s Message on the State of the Nation,” he indicated.
Far-reaching digitisation drives
President Akufo-Addo said coming into office 7 years ago, his government took the decision, as it promised, to modernize and formalise the economy through digitalisation. In this regard, he stressed that his government had embarked on one of the most far-reaching digitalisation exercises in Africa.
“Up from the figure of nine hundred thousand (900,000), which we inherited when we came into office in 2017, we have, thus far, enrolled 17.6 million on the Ghanacard, and, therefore, provided unique biometric identity to the majority of Ghanaians. We have also implemented a digital property address system with unique addresses for all properties in Ghana,” he stated.
The President added that trough the implementation of mobile money interoperability, government had also provided access to financial services for adult Ghanaians through mobile money accounts that are interoperable with bank accounts.
He disclosed that Ghana is now ranked number one in Africa in terms of access to financial inclusion. “We have digitalised the provision of public services at the ports, DVLA, NHIS, GRA, Births and Deaths, Registrar of Companies, ECG, Ghana Water, amongst others. Ghana is ranked number one in West Africa and number seven in Africa in e-Governance,” he stated.
“We have also implemented the use of drones in the delivery of medicines, blood and vaccines, and Ghana currently runs the world’s largest medical drone delivery service. We have also networked all teaching, regional and district hospitals and patient records can easily be accessed in these hospitals without the need for a folder,” he added.
According to him, Ghana is making giant strides in the area of digitalisation, thereby improving transparency, accountability and efficiency in the public sector, and accelerating the growth of the economy. He, therefore, expressed the hope that Ghana is definitely going to be part of the digital revolution that is sweeping the world.
Free SHS initiative
President Akufo-Addo also believes that arguments about the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) initiative should cease. His reason is that the success of the Free SHS initiative “had answered its critics” and that the focus should simply concentrate on finding ways to improve it.
“I am particularly glad that the fears about lowering of standards have been allayed. Refreshingly, we witnessed, through the 2023 batch of Free SHS students, the best WASSCE results in a decade,” President Akufo-Addo said.
The President noted that there is more to education than Free SHS, and Government had been paying equal attention to all the other sectors. He added that “Kindergarten, Primary School and Junior High School must work together to give a solid foundation, and strengthen the Free SHS policy”.
For him, the implementation of various programmes such as Capitation Grant, Feeding Grants to Special Schools, BECE registration for pupils in public Junior High Schools, amongst others, have significantly increased access to education at the basic level.
In addition, he said, “the focus of the comprehensive reforms within the sector has been to improve learning outcomes and ensure every child that goes through our education system is equipped with literacy and numeracy skills by the time they exit primary six.”
Economic revival
The President said the macroeconomy was much stronger at the end of 2023 than in 2022, pointing out that “inflation, which peaked at 54.1% in December 2022 has reduced to 23.5% in January 2024”.
“Real GDP Growth for the first three quarters of 2023 averaged 2.8 percent, higher than the targeted growth rate of 1.5% for 2023. The cedi has been largely stable since February 2023, with a cumulative depreciation of nine percent (9%) between February and December 2023. Gross International Reserves reflected a significant buildup of at five-point-nine billion dollars (US$5.9 billion), enough to cover 2.7 months of imports of goods and services,” he added.
He indicated that the current account turned positive at 1.4% of GDP at the end of September 2023, from negativetwo-point-one percent (-2.1%) at the end of December 2022. Generally, the President stressed that macroeconomic indicators are, once again, pointing in the right direction.
Prohibit export of bauxite in raw state
President Akufo-Addo revealed that the government will soon present a Legislative Instrument before Parliament to prohibit the export of bauxite in its raw state. He emphasised that this move is part of Ghana’s efforts to bolster its industrialization drive.
“Mr. Speaker, to spur our industrialization, we are implementing the Four Project Agenda of the Ghana Integrated Aluminium Development Corporation (GIADEC), with Projects 1 and 2 already underway, and last month, we signed an agreement for the implementation of Project 3.
“We will lay before this august House, at this First Meeting of this Session of Parliament, a Legislative Instrument to prohibit the export of bauxite in its raw state,” he stated.
He added that the government is in the concluding phase of discussions for the establishment of a $450 million refinery to refine the manganese produced in the country.
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