Former Vice President of Ghana, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has revealed that his strong advocacy for digitalisation during his tenure was met with ridicule from political opponents.
However, according to him, he used digitalisation to build the engine block for economic growth that will help solve everyday challenges.
Speaking at the 27th Annual Conference of Beyond Borders: A Myth or a Mandate for Africa’s Progress? at Harvard University in Boston, Dr. Bawumia recounted the skepticism he faced when championing digital transformation as a tool for national development.
He reiterated that despite the initial skepticism, digitalisation remains a critical pillar for Africa’s economic transformation and global competitiveness.
“My focus on digitalisation as a vice president was the subject of ridicule by political opponents. But I stuck to my vision and set out to use digitalisation to solve the everyday problems faced by Ghanaians and, in so doing, build an engine for economic growth,” he stated.
Dr. Bawumia stressed that one of Ghana’s biggest economic challenges before digitalisation was the lack of a unique identification system, which he said was solved by the introduction of the Ghana Card.
“The most important challenge for our economy, as far as digitalisation was concerned, was that in Ghana, most people couldn’t be uniquely identified.
“It was possible to be born, live your entire life, die, and be buried in Ghana without there being an official record that you ever existed,” he explained.
