Digitalization: The Pathway to Dignity?

“When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures bristling with prejudice and motivated by pride and vanity.” ~ Dale Carnegie

Lecturer as used throughout this blog (you can call it e-blog) represents the Vice President of Ghana, His Excellency Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.

On the night of Tuesday, 2^nd November, the Lecturer held a public event on the theme “Transforming the Economy Through Digitalization: The Ghana Story” at the Ashesi prestigious University. The meaning of the name of the venue in local parlance whispered and signalled to me that, it was a new beginning for the sowing of seeds for the 2024 farming season. As to what fruits will be harvested, only the future can tell.

In his opening remarks (specifically paragraph 2) on the government’s achievement in respect to the economy, the Lecturer said in part “….safeguarding food security and fight against hunger through Planting for Food and Jobs”. This statement struck me hard not because I was hungry at the time of listening to his eloquence and intelligence, but it was a quick reminder of a news report I have read with the caption ‘Planting for Food struggles for survival–Minister’ which momentarily got me confused.

Again, to say the government, is stimulating industrialization from the ground up through One District One Factory hence more factories have been set up than under any other government in the history of Ghana. I asked my confused self if, the Lecturer was referring to the 6^th March 1957 date you and I know Ghana had her independence or the 7^th January 2017 when his government assumed office?

Is it the case that, every district now has a factory which has employed to full capacity for which the Finance Minister instructs the remaining unemployed to go into entrepreneurship and job creation? Did the unemployed refuse the opportunity to work in any of these factories because, I am not sure the intention of government is to build these “high capacity factories” for the sake of record setting or praise singing? Did the imported immigrants take over employment in these factories to the detriment of the Ghanaian youth this government promised jobs eruption prior to assuming office?

The import of this e-blog is nowhere to questioning the hymns of praises sung by the Lecturer because none has been written in the Guinness Book of Records yet. It is also not related to my prior confusions as to whether the opening statements put forth by the Lecturer were facts or opinions. Nonetheless, the heart of this e-blog is to redirect your angle of reasoning to start thinking critically as a realist who has gone through both pessimism and optimism to question yourself if, the departure of the touted digitalization journey will end at the destination of dignity.

It is simply to tickle your libido of thinking and ask you, if digitalization is the pathway to the dignity of the Ghanaian and not to ascertain whether the Lecturer spoke truth or untruth and was either consistent or inconsistent because experts like Bright Simons and fact checkers like FactCheckGhana and Media Foundation for West Africa have stated their respective thoughts. Dignity in the context of this e-blog mean, reciprocal respect and freedom of the mind (not absence of war) to easily afford the basic needs of life; necessity over luxury.

It will be dishonesty to my intelligent readers and hypocritical to my own judgement, if I do not admit but rather create the impression either overtly or covertly that, nothing factual was said at that lecture. Also, I will do a great deal of disservice to my cherished readers and myself if I do not point out my questions of dilemma for their answers and clarifications (in the leave reply section at the bottom of this blog). After all, it takes someone’s ignorance to appreciate your intelligence and that is what this e-blog seeks to achieve as we both learn to build our confidence.

However, I will urge any reader not to proceed if s/he thinks, lectures as this whether political or academia cannot be scribbled and presented with one hundred percent verifiable sentences. Contrary to this advice, if any reader admits that portions of what was said were intentions and futuristic but wittily presented by the Lecturer as happenings of the past or present, then s/he can proceed to read.

Can the success story of digitalization be told with silence on the challenges of job losses and/or illiteracy? Digitalization like automation is employing computing within processes in order to improve performance; efficiency and effectiveness. Digitalization thrives on appreciable knowledge in Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) and so I asked, what is Ghana’s general literacy rate not to even specifically ask of ICT?

Digitalization is also to instil the attitude of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) thereby eliminating the face-to-face human interaction and so I again ask, would this reduction in workforce not lead to job losses? What did the Lecturer say is the possible solution to job losses and illiteracy associated with digitalization because it is only when the Ghanaian is literate and has a job that, s/he can live a life of dignity.

A more usual justification for digitalization by the Lecturer is the reduction in corruption. I admit, this unethical act of corruption which is as old as Biblical Adam cannot be eliminated and will still be the bane to our development because it deprives citizens of their basic societal needs. So I ask, how has digitalization thus far, contributed positively to Ghana’s ranking on the Corruption Perception Index? Are we measuring the importance of digitalization in the face of increasing revenue under the control of the few privileged without recourse to easing the lives of the underprivileged majority in respect to the provision of basic amenities?

Why has accountability of state resources still not been digitalized? For instance, why cant I dial *419# on my yam phone to receive description of a summarized financial report of a Ministry, Department, Agency, Metropolitan, Municipal or District Assembly rather than dial *111# to pay for a service? What is preventing government from digitalizing accountability of state resources by copying its own excellent NPP 2016 Manifesto Tracker that same Lecturer was instrumental with its launched in 2020 hosted by a gov.gh domain (a conflict of interest case for some other day)?

The 2020 budget is soon to be presented to Parliament with abridged versions and citizen’s budgets produced in local languages. When has accountability of any budget which was prepared under the Lecturer who doubles as Head of Economic Management Team being done in similar way to the illiterate taxpayer? Am I fully convinced to conclude that, the focus of digitalization in our part of world is only to make taking monies from the citizens simpler and faster rather than accounting on the use of state resources to the citizens in simpler and faster way?

Personally, the Lecturer’s speech was perfect to qualify as a thank you note delivered on behalf of the beneficiaries of Digitized Ghana under the erstwhile NABCO (Nation Builders / Breakers Corps) initiative which was supervised and administered by the Lecturer’s office. A clear case has been made and it is my prayer that, the Digitized Ghana module beneficiaries are remembered for their hard work and rewarded with good news after their two-week mandatory leave.  

It was pathetic hearing the Lecturer say in paragraph 8 of his speech that, most of the population of a 64-year-old country like Ghana could not be uniquely identified. It is possible they are born, live, die and buried without traces of any documentation. So I ask, what informed this narrative because per our population census, majority (quantifying most) of the population are at or above the voting age of eighteen years. Does it mean, the Lecturer like other politicians find or know where the voting population is during elections and neglect them after they assume office?

By what data does government plan to fix the country; number of votes declared to them by the Electoral Commission or the figures declared by the Ghana Statistical Services or number of citizens registered by the National Identification Authority? When one hears of ‘y3ti sika su’, is s/he right to think politicians know where our monies (sika) are better than where the human population (electorates) are?

I have endless questions in respect to the motive behind this digital economy agenda. Central to this is the Ghana card which is now in the circle of doubt as to whether it can be e-passport or not. The Ghana card is now your only identification in the ongoing national SIM card re-registration as supervised by our Digital Leader of the Year and Tax Identification Number to pay your taxes to the Ghana Revenue Authority as well as register your business with the Registrar Generals Department. It is basically your pass to everything as a Ghanaian. With these established importance, why can’t Ghanaians possess this card in dignity rather than either paying GHc250.00 for premium service or regularly going through queuing stress just to have an identity?   

The Ghana Statistical Service puts the country’s population at 30.8 million out of which the National Identification Authority (NIA) has registered 15 million for the Ghana Card leaving 15.8 million yet to be registered in their now established districts offices which hopefully will cater for all ages including the below 15 years. To be conservative, if 50% of the 15.8 million, that is 7.9 million pay the premium cost of GHc250.00, that amounts to GHc1.97 billion when in fact, GHc1.22 billion was reported to be spent on the registration exercise.

So I ask, did digitalization mobilise over GHc750 extra million just by registering 7.9 million Ghanaians and paying off its initial capital outlay of GHc1.22 billion? Was the GHc1.22 billion raised on the balance sheet of the NIA and its private partners or Government of Ghana borrowed that amount to fund the NIA? Whichever way, who is this extra GHC750 million cash going to; will it be compensating for the time value of money for the next 15 years? 

Financial management is not only about mobilising revenues which past and current governments are best at but also, prudently spending and accounting to the taxpayers. Government’s posture of feet dragging when it comes to accountability does it more harm than good because at the current total debt of GHc332, Ghanaians are no longer underwriters or guarantors to governments’ incessant borrowings but, now walking collaterals. It will be in government’s own interest to make it possible for every Ghanaian to own his/her national identity card with ease and in dignity so that we can live longer to collateralize more borrowings as government intends using digitalization to mobilize more revenue for loan repayments.

To conclude, output is an immediate result of an activity and it only takes the long term to know its outcome so if there is any reason to celebrate, it should be on the results of the latter. The Lecturer disclosed that, the World Economic Forum’s Global Information Report estimates that, an increase of 10% in a country’s digitalization score fuels 0.75% growth in GDP per capital. Did he tell any of us what Ghana’s score and growth in GDP have been since this unprecedented digitalization agenda started? Is digitalization improving our virtual world by compromising on our physical world?

In your patriotism, I indulge you to continue thinking about whether digitalization has the clear pathway to giving you and I a life of dignity as Ghanaians where there is reciprocal respect, freedom of the mind and easy affordability to the necessities of our everyday lives. When dignity is not achieved courtesy digitalization, then we will continue to be stuck in the vicious cycle of rhetoric and underdevelopment.

Regardless of the many unending questions in this e-blog, I am optimistic about the prospects of the Ghana we are all helping to build, the brilliant minds reading, thinking and looking forward to reading your replies and playing a role in making our nation great and strong.

My Common Sense E-Opinion

Long Live The E-Ghanaian

Long Live E-Ghana.