[dropcap]H[/dropcap]is Excellency the Vice President, Alhaji Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has reiterated government’s unwavering commitment to formalizing the Ghanaian economy as a means of achieving sustainable growth and development. He explains that economic planning is fundamentally anchored on data and that, the accuracy of this data, to a large extent, determines the success or otherwise of every economic policy and intervention.
The Vice President said that, it is almost impossible to have accurate [ads1]data for the purpose of economic planning in an economy that is so informal, such as ours. And so, the Akufo-Addo government is committed to reversing this trend by formalizing the Ghanaian economy, he asserted. Dr. Bawumia was speaking at the opening session of the maiden edition of the National Policy Summit on Monday, 15th May at the Conference Centre, where he gave the key note address on behalf of His Excellency President Nana Akufo-Addo, whom he said, was out of the country.
The Summit is an initiative of the Ministry of Information, which seeks to provide an opportune platform for government to engage stakeholders and the general public on its policies and programmes so that they can contribute meaningfully to fine-tuning same for love of God and country. It thus, seeks to promote an effective partnership between government on one hand, and captains of industry as well as private individuals on the other, for economic growth and development. This session of the Summit is focused on the economy.
On government’s agenda of formalizing the Ghanaian economy, the Vice President explains that this all-important exercise, would be anchored on 3 main pillars, namely, the National Identification System, the National Digital Address System and the Interoperability of the Nation’s Financial Sector. He disclosed that all the necessary architecture has been put in place for the smooth takeoff of the National ID system, which is meant to uniquely identify every citizen based on accurate data in order to ensure social discipline among other reasons.
The issuance of the ID cards, he said, would start by September, this year. On the National Digital Address System, Dr. Bawumia explains that, this project, will see to the digitization of every square metre within the Ghanaian territory with the help of unique GPS codes, to make it easy for people to identify places and structures. According to him, the digital address system is expected to start in July, 2017.
Finally, on interoperability of the nation’s financial sector, His Excellency the Vice President said that government remains committed to this project, which would make it possible for all citizens to make payments anywhere and across networks or banks with ease. The Summit is expected to continue on Tuesday, 16th May, 2016 at the Accra International Conference Centre.
Iddi Muhayu-Deen
#ForGodAndCountry
