How did we ever let Mahama to slip away?

Over and above the aforementioned benefits being derived from the NDC’s massive digital infrastructure achievements, John Mahama’s Digital Applications record is unmatched. Digital Applications ride on the back of robust digital infrastructure and hold the most significant potential for job creation, security enhancement and delivery of social welfare services.

Digital Applications encompass two main interlinked components:
• E-Commerce and
• E-Government

E-Commerce

In furtherance of E-Commerce, business transactions that take place on the internet - President Mahama ensured the integration of digital applications into private and public business processes to achieve greater efficiency, timely and effective service delivery to citizens.

His achievements, in this regard, can be grouped as follows:
• Government to Government (G2G)
• Government to Citizens (G2C)
• Government to Business (G2B)

To begin with, the Government to Government (G2G) initiatives included:

• 24/7 broadband internet access for all MMDAs.

• Automation of government agencies through a Wide Area Network (WAN) infrastructure backbone.

• Web hosting, domain registration and E-mail (.com.gh and .gov.gh) for all government entities.

• Enterprise document management system for the archiving, retrieval perusal and management of critical government documents.

Furthermore, the Government to Citizens (G2C) initiatives, called E-Services, have improved the quality of services rendered by the government to citizens and harmonized and enhanced cooperation between the public bodies providing them. By so doing, human contacts are being removed, contributing significantly to the reduction of corrupt practices that have always characterized citizens’ requests or applications for basic everyday needs like birth certificates, passports, drivers’ licenses etc.

Specifically, the E-services platform www.eservices.gov.gh, which has since been integrated into the www.epay.gov.gh platform provides a one-stop-shop for all citizens regardless of location to apply for basic services online without having to join long queues and ransack Government agencies for them.

This has ultimately saved time, money and energy millions of Ghanaians would have expended on traveling from their villages and districts to secure such services. It has also significantly reduced the middlemen, popularly known as ‘Goro boys’, who charge exorbitant fees for their illegal activities.

With this platform, citizens are able to digitally apply for passports, birth certificates, and driver’s license, register their business from the Registrar general’s department, request both marriage certificates and police background check reports and most importantly, conveniently file and pay taxes.

The Births & Deaths Registry (BDR), Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), Driver & Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), Registrar General Department, Ghana Police Criminal Investigation Department and Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) are some of the agencies on this platform.

Added to the www.eservices.gov.gh was an electronic payment gateway www.epay.gov.gh.This was developed to facilitate the payment for all transactions requested by applicants.

The E-payment gateway has the capacity to accept various payment types such as:

• Debit/Credit Cards (international) – VISA

• Debit/Credit Cards (Local – Ghana)

• Mobile Money (MTN, VODAFONE, AIRTEL/TIGO)

• Cheques, Cash, and Bank Transfer payments

As of October 2016, there had been 23,333 total transactions and an amount of GHC168, 973,528.54 had been collected for eight MMDAs. As mentioned earlier, both www.eservices.gov.gh and www.epay.gov.gh have been combined into one website. So all e-services can now be accessed from www.epay.gov.gh.

In furtherance of E-Commerce, Government to Business (G2B) initiatives has also been enhanced through John Mahama’s vision to provide digital infrastructure to enhance the capacity of Telcos.