Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia on Wednesday, February 7, 2024, delivered a national address where he outlined his vision for Ghana and campaign message ahead of the 2024 polls.
The presentation dubbed “Ghana’s Next Chapter: Selfless Leadership and Bold Solutions for the Future” featured majorly an account of the work of the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia government over the last seven years and his personal vision for various sectors of the Ghanaian economy if he is elected president.
With a key promise by former President John Dramani Mahama, the flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress to implement a 24-hour economy, Bawumia in his address posited that the current NPP government is already in pursuit of a 24-hour economy powered by his digitalisation agenda.
In all, there were 15 instances where “24 hours” appeared in the New Patriotic Party’s 2024 presidential flagbearer’s speech.
Bawumia outlined various instances proving an active all-day round economy facilitated by plans, policies and programmes of the current government.
On financial inclusion, Dr Bawumia said his championing of a Mobile Money Interoperability has shifted the dynamics of financial inclusion in the country.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, we faced a major problem of very few people having access to and financial services. To solve this problem, I championed the implementation of Mobile money interoperability (MMI). MMI has made it possible to transfer money seamlessly across different mobile money providers and between bank accounts and mobile wallets.
“Today, because of mobile money interoperability (MMI), you can transfer money from a customer of one mobile money service provider to a customer of a different mobile money service provider and also make payments from your mobile money account into any bank account and you can receive payments from any bank account into your mobile money account. This can be done 24 hours a day!” he touted.
Beyond inclusiveness, Dr Bawumia noted that the MMI platform has aided to create cashless economy and also continuous to facilitate a seamless digital banking and financing process.
As a vehicle for promoting unimpeded access to financial services, Dr Bawumia added that e-commerce in Ghana has seen a major boost with citizens now able to conduct businesses online regardless of location.
“The digital payments infrastructure is boosting e-commerce in Ghana. Businesses are booming over Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Many people who cannot afford to rent or build shops are able to do business on the internet at little cost with deliveries helped by digital address and payments using mobile money interoperability.
“This can be done 24 hours a day! Ghana is currently ranked number 6 in Africa in terms of e-commerce after Mauritius, Nigeria, South Africa, Tunisia and Morocco according to UNCTAD,” Dr Bawumia said.
As part of his argument in favour of an Akufo-Addo-Bawumia government powered 24 hour economy, Dr Bawumia pointed to several government services which have become more accessible to citizens within the period.
He pointed to the digitalised services including passport application, motor insurance, government scholarship application and others as evolving to promote a 24 hour economy.
“To make it easy to access government services, I led the initiative to establish the Ghana.Gov platform which was implemented with oversight from my office. The Ghana.gov portal is a one-stop shop for accessing government services. So far, out of 1,516 of Ministries, Departments and Agencies 31 targeted, we have onboarded 1,503 on to the Ghana.Gov platform for e-government services (99% of MMDAs have been onboarded!).
“All payments made on the Ghana.Gov platform go directly into the government accounts ensuring transparency. Since 2020, a total of GHC 201 billion has been collected for Government on the platform,” he said.
On power distribution and supply, Dr Bawumia said the digitalisation of operations of the Electricity Company of Ghana bears testament the active 24 hour economy with benefits to show.
He mentioned other activities such as health delivery, tax filing and the National Health Insurance Scheme as all bearing testimony to the active 24 hour economy.
