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The 2012 Vice-Presidential Candidate of the New
Patriotic Party, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has stated that the Nana Akufo-Addo
administration would implement key policies aimed at the formalization of the
Ghanaian economy since that would be key to transforming Ghana into a modern,
globally competitive society and economy.
The NPP Running Mate who was
speaking at a Townhall Meeting with the Ghanaian community in Toronto, Canada,
noted that Ghana’s economy which is largely informal, inhibits economic
development and could act as a huge hindrance to the Nation’s quest to become
globally competitive and modern.
He said, “In transforming our society,
it would be critical to formalize our economy and the Nana Akufo-Addo
administration would take very immediate steps in this direction. Mainly, the
NPP would focus on achieving three key things – the unique identification of all
residents, a comprehensive street and property address system and an economy
dominated by electronic payments”
Dr. Bawumia explained that the absence
of a database uniquely identifying all citizens and residents of Ghana continues
to inhibit economic development and transformation.
He noted that it was
in recognition of this, that the previous NPP government established the
National Identification Authority (NIA) and mandated it with the all important
task of establishing this database. He continued that unfortunately, the NDC
administration since assuming office in January 2009 has not approached this
duty with any seriousness but has rather decided to play politics with such an
important institution.
Dr. Bawumia stated that after almost four years in
office, Ghana has been the loser as the task of identifying citizens and
residents was no closer to completion since the NIA had not been sufficiently
resourced to carry out its mandate. Dr. Bawumia informed the audience that a
Nana Akufo-Addo administration would tackle the National Identification process
with all seriousness and ensure that as much as possible, all residents are
issued a National Identification Card within the first year of governance and
stressed that the vision would be toward ensuring that all citizens in the
future have their National Identification numbers at birth.
Touching on
the second key area of focus, Dr. Bawumia said that a system of street naming
and property addresses was one of the most underestimated requirements for the
transformation of our economy. He and pledged that a Nana Akufo-Addo
administration would make the implementation of a comprehensive address system a
priority and provide the requisite resources to accomplish.
“A
functioning address system creates jobs and streamlines business. It drives
commerce, the delivery business, makes identification easy for financial
transactions, reduces risks to financing business etc. It is one of the
unwritten rules of a modern economy and the availability today of GPS technology
and systems like Google maps should make our task much easier”, he
said
On the need to transform the economy to an electronic dominated
payments regime, the former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana told the
Ghanaian said, “we would work to move the economy from the current cash economy
to one that will be dominated by electronic payments and encourage personal
savings by banking the unbanked through policies for financial
inclusion. This would in the process increase access to credit by individuals
and businesses.”
He indicated that technology for electronic payment
systems had already been initiated in Ghana and that what is needed is the
political will to see the process through fully; a process he noted will move
the country into the era of electronic payments, do away with the numerous ghost
names on government payroll, and ultimately ensure that salaries of workers are
paid on time and are accessible anywhere and at any time even in rural areas
without electricity.
Dr. Bawumia argued that these key steps would be
critical to modernizing the Ghanaian economy, increasing discipline in the
society, improving access to credit, creating new businesses and jobs and
widening the tax base.
“What would happen to the Canadian economy if the
street address system vanished or the social security numbers for everyone
disappeared?” Dr. Bawumia rhetorically asked the Toronto audience and noted that
such a situation would only result in the collapse of the Canadian
economy.
Dr. Bawumia is presently on a working visit to Canada with a
team that includes Kwadjo Owusu-Afriyie, the New Patriotic Party General
Secretary and Youth Organizer of the Party, Anthony Karbo. |
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