Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has highlighted the importance of the Ghana card as a key component of government’s digitalization efforts.
According to him, the Ghana card has aided in tackling corruption, identify fraud, among others particularly in the informal economy.
Speaking at the 20th edition of the GIPC Ghana Club 100 awards on December 8, the Vice President said the Ghana card has become an anchor which government will use to tackle corruption, lawlessness, tax evasion while roping in an unbanked society.
“One of the areas that can help our private sector immensely is to transition from the informal economy that we have in many countries, especially in Ghana. When we came into office, we were facing some major challenges in the area of informal economy.
“Before you can really build an economy that is going to be transformational, you need to take care of major problems that are in the informal economy,” Dr Bawumia highlighted.
He continued, “You look at an economy in the informal sense which turned to be undisciplined, 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.”
He stressed that government will continue to make key investments towards the formalization of the economy through digitalization efforts.
“This is why we have been moving sturdily and we have made a lot of progress in this particular area. Of course, the anchor for the digitalization programme has been the Ghana Card that we issued. Today, we have enrolled over a 17million people on the Ghana Card, today we have linked all bank accounts to the Ghana Card, and linked all SIM cards to the Ghana Card, TIN is your Ghana Card number, NHIS number is your Ghana Card number, today we have linked the Ghana Card to the Controller and Accountant General Department payroll. Today we are increasing this formalization of the economy as a result of digitalisation, we are digitalizing all government services through Ghana.gov.gh and so on,” he pointed out.
“All these bring transparency and that helps businesses, it makes the system clearer, and it reduces corruption because you can get services without actually going to meet anybody who will demand a bribe,” Dr Bawumia concluded.
Meanwhile, the 20th edition of the Ghana Club 100 awards celebrated decades of resilience, innovation, and excellence demonstrated by Ghanaian businesses across strategic sectors, including agriculture and agribusiness, financial services, ICT, infrastructure, petroleum, mining services, manufacturing, tourism, health, and education.
The complete list of the top 100 firms recognized highlights the diverse contributions of businesses in driving economic growth and excellence in Ghana.