Vice President and flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has urged African countries to emulate Ghana’s digitalisation agenda which has been the key driving force in fighting against corruption.
He said the cost of corruption on the world’s health, education, and economic progress of Africa is enormous, stating that over the last five decades, more than $1 trillion was lost in Africa through corruption and illicit financial flows.
Dr Bawumia said this while addressing participants at the Annual General Meeting of Heads of Anti-Corruption Agencies in Africa, on Thursday, May 9.
He said that the future of the African continent is under significant threat if corruption is not defeated, adding that if African countries woe back the youth through the oppressive burden of bribery, Africa will not be able to achieve its potential as a continent.
The Vice President highlighted revenue leakage as a mechanism through which corrupt people privately pocket revenues that have been collected on behalf of the State.
“One of how we can ensure that African governments maintain physical stability is fighting revenue leakage-related corruption,” he said.
Dr Bawumia said that to make the kind of progress African countries wish for, the approach to fighting corruption must begin to focus on the networks and the range of activities facilitated by persons engaged in the act.
“I posit to you that with the right tools and their use, we can deploy digitalization to defeat the worst forms of public corruption, including the networks that underpin them. While bribery and revenue leakage corrupt networks and value change are some of the most pressing issues in the fight against corruption, what threatens the future of African youth – we also have at our disposal digital technologies to identify members of corrupt networks to account for revenues collected and to block revenue theft and track monies and suspicious activities.”
The NPP flagbearer said that using digital technology to identify people helps keep track of members of criminal corrupt networks and to prevent the easy laundering of the proceeds of corruption.
“By providing all Ghanaians and resident foreigners with biometrically enabled identity cards (Ghana Card), we have enabled law enforcement agencies to properly track corrupt individuals,” Dr Bawumia said.
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