With the increasing infusion of digitalization into the provision of Government services
and everyday life, with plans to adopt the highest levels of data security in the provision
of such services, Ghana is well on its way to becoming the first blockchain-powered
government in Africa and one of the very few in the world, Vice President Mahamudu
Bawumia has announced.
“We are going to adopt blockchain technology for government to ensure that all data and
transactions in the Government space are transparent and tamper-proof, no one can change
them, and so ours could well become the first blockchain-powered government in Africa,”
the Vice President stated in Accra yesterday.
Dr Bawumia gave the indication of a brighter, safer digital future for Ghana when he gave
keynote remarks at the 14ths Commonwealth Regional Conference and Annual General
Meeting of Heads of Anti-Corruption Agencies in Africa being held in Accra.
Representatives of 20 African countries, as well as global anti-corruption bodies are attending
the conference, according to the organizers.
“About 99% of all government agencies (1507 out of 1517) have been onboarded onto the
Government digital platform Ghana.gov, with the remaining 1% set to be completed by the
end of the year” Dr Bawumia said adding that , “Access to almost all Government services
can be accessed electronically, with payment also made electronically, no cash. Ghana.Gov
has collected GHC 201 billion for government so far. In the past, a portion of this revenue
would have ended up in individual pockets, but computers do not demand or accept bribes.
Digitalization has thus plugged leakages in Government revenue by eliminating the
corruption involved in cash transactions.
“For Ghana, our next stage of the digitalization journey is to complete the integration of our
databases through the X-Road Integration infrastructure as done in other countries such as
Estonia. We will then apply blockchain technology to all of government, for the rapid and
immutable identification of modifications in digital data and intelligent devices.
“We are moving towards blockchain because technology because blockchain technology
makes it possible to discover any and all changes made to digital data, no matter how small,
no matter by whom, we will find it immediately.
“So the blockchain practically blocks corruption, and this is where we are headed to, so that
you can track and trace all transactions across the Government space and this is a very, very
effective tool.
“Our goal is to make Ghana the first blockchain-powered Government in Africa and one of
the few in the world. We believe we can be the first in Africa to do so” he declared.
Vice President Bawumia bemoaned the devastating effect of corruption on Africa, with
experts estimating that the continent has lost at least one trillion US Dollars ($1trn) over the
past five years through corruption and illicit financial flows, while a significant percentage of
persons of people who have contact with a public official will pay a bribe or will be asked to.
“Corruption is costing us a huge amount of money and depriving us of the lives we deserve”,
he noted, and called for more investment into the acquisition of digital tools to fight the
corruption eco-system as a whole.
While noting the huge strides made in Ghana’s fight against corruption, including the
issuance of a unique identity card and address for all Ghanaians and resident foreigners in
Ghana, Vice President Bawumia called on African governments to make a deliberate effort to
holistically invest in acquiring the necessary tools to fight crime and cross-border corruption.
“The next stage in fighting corruption in an age of sophisticated Artificial Intelligence-
enabled cybercrime is for anti-corruption and law enforcement agencies to invest in digital
forensics and tools that will enable our various countries to track, trace and disrupt the entire
corruption value-chain. It is time that anti-corruption and law enforcement agencies acquire
customised security operation centres purposed towards fighting corruption networks.
“in Ghana, by digitalizing the processes for accessing public services and reducing to the
barest minimum the human interface along the chain, we can and we are reducing the
opportunities to demand for and collect bribes in the public sector. Again, by digitalizing
payments for public services, we can and we are reducing the incidence of revenue leakages.
And finally, by rolling out appropriate digital platforms and systems we can and we are
beginning to disrupt the networks working in concert to facilitate acts of and distribute the
proceeds of corruption.
“My charge to us all, is to leverage all these to track, and trace and disrupt the entire
corruption value chain and to give our continent a fighting chance against poverty and under-
development. It is my hope that together, we will continue to defeat corruption in Africa in all
its forms.”
