President of Imani Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, has said transparency in the government’s acquisition of digital solutions could be improved. His c
President of Imani Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, has said transparency in the government’s acquisition of digital solutions could be improved.
His comment follows the public lecture delivered Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia while delivering a public lecture at the Ashesi University on Tuesday November 2.
Dr Bawumia touted the government’s achievements in digitalisation.
He indicated that “Individuals are empowered to exercise their rights and responsibilities fairly and equitably in a modern society. Digital inclusion provides access to government services. Institutions like DVLA, Police, Banks, NHIA, Passport office, GRA, SSNIT, Telecom companies, will be able to verify the identity of anyone they are doing business with.
“It will make the targeting of government programs to the vulnerable and disadvantaged more effective. International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) this year to globally activate the e-passport function of the Ghanacard and I am happy to announce that on 13th October 2021, Ghana officially became the 79th member of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Public Key Directory (PKD) community.
“The ICAO Public Key Directory (PKD) is a central repository for exchanging the information required to authenticate e-passports. Ghana’s Country Signing Certificate Authority would therefore soon be imported into the ICAO PKD System through what is known as a Key ceremony.
“The Key Ceremony for Ghana will be held at the ICAO headquarters in Montreal Canada hopefully by the 1st quarter of 2022. be read and verified in all ICAO compliant borders (in 197 countries and 44,000 airports in the world). When this happens, holders of the Ghanacard will be allowed to board any flight to Ghana.
“Furthermore, the good news for diasporan Ghanaians is that when the Ghana Immigration Service is linked to the NIA architecture diasporan Ghanaians who hold the Ghanacard should not have to obtain visas to travel to Ghana. We expect this to be operational by the end of the first quarter of next year. Ghana is one of the few countries in the world where the national ID card is also an e-passport.”
Sharing his views on this public lecture, Mr Cudjoe said in a statement “Bawumia is handling the government’s digitilisation agenda with so much passion and focus. And there are great transformations no doubt, but certainly could be better with transparent procurement processes for acquiring some of the digital solutions.
“This is one time when command control gets results. A briĺliant lecture it was at Ashesi- great questions from students. I have a feeling Ashesi students are better at selling the govt’s digitilisation drive than the average NPP party loyalists.
“Or party folks are scared they will be marked for ‘death’ when they praise Bawumia’s digital efforts ahead of what might be a stormy succession race? Well, I am far removed from the madness of politics, so I will listen to Bawumia’s next lecture when he invites me again.”
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