Mahamudu Bawumia, Vice President of Ghana
The Vice President and flag bearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has disclosed that the next phase of the government’s massive digitization drive will be the adoption of blockchain technology.
According to him, the move will make it impossible to falsify government data and records as the government continues to fight corruption in the public sector by leveraging digital tools.
Dr Bawumia, who has so far successfully driven the digitization agenda of the NPP government, explained that when blockchain technology is successfully implemented, the government could be the first on the African continent to have a blockchain-powered government.
“We will adopt blockchain technology for government to ensure that all data and transactions in the government space are transparent and irrefutable. No one can change them.
“And so ours could very well become the first blockchain-powered government in Africa,” he said in Accra on May 9, 2024, in his keynote address at the 14th Commonwealth Regional Conference and the Annual General Meeting of the Heads of Combating Agencies of Corruption in Africa.
With only about 1% of government agencies yet to be fully placed on the Government of Ghana digital platform, Dr. Bawumia expressed optimism that all agencies will be digitized by the end of the year for the smooth implementation of the next phase.
“For Ghana, the next stage of our digitization journey is to complete the integration of our databases through the X-Road Integration infrastructure, as has been done in other countries such as Estonia.
“We will then implement blockchain technology across government to rapidly and immutably identify modifications to digital data and smart devices.
“We are moving towards blockchain because blockchain technology makes it possible to discover any changes that have been made to digital data, no matter how small, by whomever it is, we will find it immediately.
“So blockchain practically blocks corruption, and this is where we’re headed, so you can track and trace all transactions across the entire government space, and that’s 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 added.
The government has received praise for its digitization drive in public sector administration. Almost all government ministries, departments and agencies are functioning digitally, eliminating the manual system that left plenty of room for corruption.