Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has touted the significance of the digitization drive he has been championing under the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government.
Speaking at a maiden edition of the Nation Development Conference by the Church of Pentecost, which was on the need to build moral values to propel Ghana’s development, Dr Bawumia said that the Akufo-Addo government is not only talking about Ghanaians having moral values but has put systems in place to check bad behavior.
He cited the example of how the digitization of the operation of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) helped stop the stealing of state funds at the company.
“We noticed some very, very interesting piece of data which speaks to the problems of ECG. We look at the data and for a period of four years or so the revenue of ECG was virtually constant. We said this cannot be possible. How can you get more customers and revenue was virtually the same?
“They didn’t even take their time to change the value, so we sent in a team to look at the architecture of revenue collection at ECG and digitalize the process. They were collecting GH¢450 million a month.
“When we sent in the team, there was subrogate, a malware was introduced into the system by people working right there and we then brought in a whole new architecture. And after the completion of this digitization process, GH¢450 million a month increased into GH¢1.2 billion every month,” he narrated.
He added that similar successes have been chalked at revenue collection agencies including the Passport Office, where revenue has been increased from GH¢1million to GH¢64 million a year.
The maiden conference, which is being held in partnership with the Ghana Journalists Association, is on the theme: “Moral Vision and National Development” and it is aimed at discussing the need for a national moral vision with a concerted effort for national development.
It was graced by Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin, Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo as well as former Presidents John Agyekum Kufuor and John Dramani Mahama.
Also present at the opening of the National Development Congress 2023 which would last till Thursday, July 27, 2023, were government functionaries including the Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta; the Minister for Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, Stephen Asamoah Boateng; Chief of Staff, Akosua Frema Osei-Opare.
Members of Parliament, including Majority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, as well as Members of the Council of State were there in their numbers. Members of the Board of Trustees of the National Cathedral of Ghana, representatives of the various churches in Ghana as well as of the National Chief Imam were present.
