Dr. Bawumiah’s bad and incomprehensible Digitisation policies portend grave danger for the creation of jobs and revenue generation in our emerging digital economy with regards to the inadequate Digital Infrastructure and poor implementation of the National Digital Property Addressing System.
First, there is no gainsaying the fact that, Digital Infrastructure and Applications are the mainstays of every digitised economy. Ghana, at present, has a huge Digital Infrastructure deficit as a result of the exponential increase in Consumer demands for Voice and Mobile Broadband Data applications. President Mahama, ever visionary and pragmatic, envisaged this challenge many years ago and took steps to address it by building the National Data Center, fiber (rural & metro) and 4G networks to help Mobile Network Operators readily and conveniently connect to Homes, Businesses and Institutions in unserved and underserved areas where they could not easily reach. These important measures were meant to ensure stable and uninterrupted Voice Calls and High Speed Internet Connectivity for all Ghanaians, regardless of location.
However, seven years down the line, there’s been no meaningful investment in Digital Infrastructure, and many Ghanaians are experiencing incessant interruptions in their Voice Calls and unstable Internet connections every now and then, with no end in sight. Where is our loquacious Vice President- Dr. Bawumiah, in the midst of these challenges?
The truth of the matter is that, no digital economy can thrive without the appropriate or commensurate Digital Infrastructure. That is why, for instance, when President Mahama introduced the www.eservices.gov.gh platform to enable Ghanaians to apply for Passports, Birth & Death Certicates, Police Clearance, Drivers license and even file taxes online, he also built the Accra Digital Center Infrastructure (ADC) to facilitate applications and services. In fact, before the ADC, he had already set-up a One-Stop Shop Centre (OSSC) at the former Vodafone Headquarters, near Kwame Nkrumah Circle,to aid Applicants. Beyond Accra, Community Information Centres (CICs) were built and equipped with the state of the art Network and Hardware Infrastructure in many districts to facilitate the applications of these same services. Indeed, most of these CICs were commissioned in 2016 by Dr. Edward Omane Boamah, then Minister of Communications.
Relatedly, President Mahama also built the National Data Centre (NDC) Infrastructure; not only to accommodate the huge Data storage needs of this digital platform, but also to ensure that Internet traffic was regulated at an Exchange point to bring down the cost of Mobile Data and also promote our identity on the world wide web. This NDC is located at Ridge, Accra; with a Back-up on KNUST’s campus, Kumasi.
It is interesting to note, that in spite of all these efforts, Dr. Bawumiah unashamedly claims credit for building this Digital Application services platform after changing the domain name[website] from www.eservices.gov.gh to www.ghana.gov. Dishonesty at the highest level.
Second, the original plan for the implementation of our National Digital Addressing System was to capture all public and private properties including unused parcels of land, landmarks and even water bodies in Ghana, code and assign UNIQUE addresses to them within a Geo-location Database System; that is, an integration of both GPS and a Database . This critical National Database was to be hosted at the aforementioned state of the art National Data Center; and eventually, would have been made easily accessible and searchable by Lands Commission, NADMO and all Security Agencies (Police, Fire Service etc) in response to emergencies among other things. Local Government Institutions could also take advantage of this Database to efficiently collect and manage Property Rates to boost revenue generation for Government and create many job opportunities for unemployed graduates. Additionally, it would also have been a secured and reliable platform for Businesses , especially Financial institutions (Banks, Insurance Agencies, Property Valuers, etc) to verify and validate the documents of their applicants for loans and credits and so on.
But, quite sadly, Dr. Bawumiah messed it up. His badly implemented Digital Addressing System anchored by the infamous GhanaPost GPS or the ‘JACK, WHERE ARE YOU’ APP does not have the capacity to do any of the above. At the moment, one can generate multiple addresses on the same property using the APP, which is dangerous, reckless and wrong; given the fact that our Institutions are not even able to INSTANTLY verify the Digital Addresses being offered or used by citizens and non citizens alike. This alone defeats the purpose of a UNIQUE DIGITAL ADDRESSING SYSTEM!
Indeed, under the circumstances Dr. Bawumiah must be called to answer these three critical questions:
1. Are these Digitally generated Addresses by Ghanaians using the $2.5 million GhanaPost GPS or the ‘JACK, WHERE ARE YOU’ APP to register their businesses, open bank accounts, and apply for the almighty Ghana Card,the same as their residential or business addresses?
2. Do these Digital Addresses correspond to the same residential address Sign Posts on our walls or gates? If yes, which location on our properties were they generated from?
3. Which country in the world allows its citizens to generate their own residential and businesses addresses?
The answers to these questions are so obvious that Dr. Bawumiah doesn’t even have to respond. Truth be told, this badly implemented Digital Addressing System presents to us as a country, a clear and present danger; and Dr. Bawumiah must be blamed for this. Serious auditing and validation of business and residential addresses need to be carried out in the near future to avert any calamity; else, businesses will suffer and the almighty Ghana Card will even be useless.
Going forward, the Vice-President and his digital team must go back to the drawing board and immediately expand :
1. The existing broadband network infrastructure of about 1000kms of rural fiber from Accra to Bawku, 300kms of Metro Fiber within the Accra-Tema enclave, 120 4G sites doted across the country, that former President John Mahama built to help Mobile Network Operators connect to all Ghanaians and end the needless Voice-Call drops and volatilities in internet connections.This intervention will also present huge job opportunities for the many unemployed.
2. The National Data Center to improve upon our Data storage needs and meet our Cyber Security challenges.
In conclusion, Dr. Bawumiah has messed up our economy. He cannot and must not be allowed to destroy the emerging digital economy which will be powered by a ‘24-Hour Economy’ in 2025’.