Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia says the next stage of Ghana’s digitalisation journey is to become the first blockchain-powered government in Africa to fight corruption.
The Blockchain technology is capable of identifying and discovering any changes in digital data to trace all transactions in the governance space.
That, he believed, would promote transparency and enable the Government to fight corruption in its entirety.
Vice President Bawumia announced this on Thursday at the 14th Regional Conference and Annual General Meeting of Heads of Anti-Corruption Agencies in Commonwealth Africa, in Accra.
The week-long conference is on the theme: “Strengthening Institutions and Promoting Transparency: A Means of Fighting Corruption in Commonwealth Africa”.
It attracted 20 Commonwealth African countries to deliberate on ways to make corruption unattractive on the continent and promote wealth creation.
Dr Bawumia highlighted some of the digital initiatives the Government had implemented since 2017, which were yielding immense benefits for the nation.
For instance, the ghana.gov portal, a one-stop platform for paying public services electronically and enabled the government to collect GHS201 billion since 2020, was worth mentioning, he said.
With the digitalisation of passport application, he said applications increased from 347,000 to 752,000 recorded by the Passport Office while its revenues jumped from GHS12 million to GHS94 million between 2018 and 2023.
Additionally, the integration of the public sector databases through the use of GhanaCard enabled the Controller and Accountant General’s Department to expunge 29,000 ‘ghost’ pensioners from the public sector payroll and save the nation GHC480 million annually.
Dr Bawumia said the use of unique identity card (GhanaCard) enabled the Government to detect 44,707 ghost names on the National Service Scheme payroll and saved the nation GHS356 million.
He entreated Anti-Corruption Agencies in Africa to invest in digital forensics and tools to assist them to track, trace and distract the corruption value chain.
The anti-graft institutions in Africa must also acquire Customised Security Operation Centres to enable them to fight corruption networks.
The Vice President said Ghana could fight corruption more efficiently if the Central Bank finally introduced the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), otherwise known as the eCedi.
“The eCedi will be our ultimate weapon in our fight against corruption because it will make it easy to track the movements of money and identify suspicious activities,” he said.
It would also enable the Bank of Ghana to ensure high-level transparency, reduce the risk of fraud, tax avoidance and money laundering.
Latest Stories
-
Commissioner of GRA’s Customs Division urges enhanced collaboration among security agencies
14 mins -
Brigadier General Ayorogo visits Ho Collection to strengthen border security and revenue Collection
27 mins -
Ho Sector Commander of Customs urges increased staffing to curb smuggling
43 mins -
KNUST SHS wins American Corner/ACE spoken word competition
46 mins -
UniMAC-IJ lecturer donates History books to Alma Mater, 2 other schools in Eastern Region
57 mins -
GNAT bares teeth at OSP, CAGD over ‘ghost names’ investigation
1 hour -
Fred Smith: The Day I met a Horny Gay!
2 hours -
India’s High Commissioner to Ghana engages with Volta GJA members to strengthen bilateral ties and business opportunities
2 hours -
Re: Government could not account for the Initial $200m GARID Project’s World Bank Credit Facility – Minority Members of Parliament
2 hours -
Bryan Acheampong winning SSNIT hotels bid amounts to conflict of interest – Azeem
2 hours -
I am music and music is me – Eno Barony
2 hours -
CK Akonnor appointed CAF technical advisor for youth players development
3 hours -
Government payroll sees GH¢34m savings as OSP and CAGD collaborate to remove ‘ghost names’
3 hours -
Big Chef Season 3: Six finalists re-enact traditional kitchen, cooking styles
3 hours -
BoG grants Zeepay approval for outbound money transfer
3 hours