Govt To Use Technology To Bridge Rich-Poor Gap ―Prez

President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has announced that plans are underway to close the gap between the poor and the rich using technology.

According to him, the automation of various systems in the country would promote the growth of businesses and improve development.

Delivering a keynote address during the 61st Independence Day celebration on Tuesday, 6 March, in Accra, the President said, “we now live in a digital world, and to be competitive, we have to be a part of and take advantage of digitization.”

Nana Addo said, poverty in Ghana is at its core adding that the poverty gap is a technology gap.

“The mastery of technology is what, at the end of the day, separates developed from developing countries, or rich from poor countries. This is a gap we have to bridge.

“We are laying a strong foundation for an educated and skilled workforce of the future through the Free Senior High School (SHS) programme, which this academic year enabled 90,000 additional young Ghanaians to enrol in SHS. These are our future scientists, engineers, modern farmers, innovators, entrepreneurs, and transformation agents,” he declared.

It could be recalled that in 2017, the government of Ghana had embarked on a number of strategies to digitise and modernise the system― making it easy for businesses to survive the growing age of cut-throat competition.

According to the president, the national identification and address system, the drivers licence and vehicle registration, the paperless operation at the ports, inter-operability of payment system in the financial sector, were all geared towards modernizing the economy.

“We should begin to feel the difference when all these measures become operational this year… digitization would also allow the delivery of education and health services to remote areas, reduce corruption, expand the tax base, expand e-commerce, make credit more available as uncertainty is reduced for financial institutions, and increase domestic resource mobilization,” Nana Addo stated.

He added that the major push for national development policy would ensure that science, technology and innovation drive all sectors of the economy.

Nana Addo continued: “We are going to commit resources to basic and applied science and engineering, that should result in the development of the capacity to manufacture machinery, equipment and component parts for industry, agriculture, especially machinery for planting, harvesting and processing of produce.”

By: Grace Ablewor Sogbey/ [email protected]