Mr Isaac Adongo, Ranking Member, Parliament’s Finance Committee, says the next National Democratic Congress (NDC) government will give Ghana a comprehensive and interrelated superior digitalisation system.
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Bolgatanga Central, said apart from the fact such a system would surpass digitalisation efforts credited to Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, it would minimise human intervention in the delivery service of public services, corruption and crime.
The MP was delivering a public lecture as part of the Dialogue Series organised by the Coalition for Restoration (CFR) at the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA).
It was on the theme: “Ghana’s economic mess: Victim of Irresponsible Economic Governance?”
He described the Government’s digitalisation agenda being championed by the Vice President as the “implementation of stand-alone improvement tools”, which had not done much to reduce corruption and improve efficiency.
The European Foundation describes digitalisation as “the ongoing integration of digital technologies and digitised data across the economy and society.
Experts say digitalisation can simplify a country’s security and intelligence systems and improve its economy and infrastructure.
It can also drive innovation, economic growth and job creation in many sectors of the economy, while allowing for greater interconnection among different markets.
Mr Adongo stated: “You said John Mahama was using manual rudimentary systems and you have come to digitalised. If you have come to digitalised, shouldn’t you be better than John Mahama in corruption perception? Your best, 43 is John Mahama’s worst – 43.”
Mr Adongo said the NDC’s digitalisation system would be modelled on the European system, where a single traffic stop by the Police could lead to the retrieval of an individual’s public records with all the relevant information needed by the authorities.
The lecture was to analyse Ghana’s economic performance under the current administration, the causes of the economic downturn, and to project the solutions that the NDC would implement should they win the 2024 General Election.
He credited former President Mahama, Ekwow Spio-Grabrah, Haruna Iddrisu and Dr Edward Omane Boamah, for initiating various communication and infrastructure projects that helped transform the country’s telecommunications and other sectors of the economy.
He enumerated economic interventions that the NDC administration would implement to make Ghana resilient, including the 24-hour economy, transform the country into an import substitution and export-led economy, and create more well-paying jobs for unemployed Ghanaians.
The NDC government, he said, would also prioritise local participation in the banking, financial, telecommunications, mining, oil and gas, agriculture, manufacturing, and construction sectors.
Mr Adongo said they would lead a process to set a standardised limit for borrowing and ensure that Ghanaians did not suffer any “deadly debt management programme that threatens to send elderly people holding government bonds to their early graves.”
GNA
SOF
02 March 2024
