Andrew Takyi-Appiah, CEO of Zeepay, has called on politicians from the main political divide, the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), to desist from being partisan when developing a framework on the digital economy.
He lamented the lack of understanding by lawmakers on the speed at which the digital economy is moving, urging them to come together to push the economy through digitization.
Mr. Takyi-Appiah posited that it is time for politicians to listen to suggestions made by enablers in the technological space, adding that their actions and inactions negatively affect the growth of the country’s economy.
The CEO of Zeepay further charged the framers of the law to engage players in the digital market in order to get the right information needed to push the economy.
“We have to be deliberate. I think that we need a framework, we need social contracts. We need a certain behaviour that will drive a certain conversation. The first thing we need, for the first time as a country, is not going to be partisan.
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It’s not going to be aligned to a certain party or certain people. And just put the right calibre of people on the table. And let’s say, we are going to think through first. Come up with discussion papers and open it up, and get ecosystems involved,” he said.
“We need to just de-humanize ourselves and not be emotional, and for the first time, and say for the sake of the vision, for the 100 years ahead of us, we are going to call people who understand and have built,” he added.
He believes it will be difficult for the framers of the law to design policies if they have not directly involved in the digital economy.
“Businesses will exist, and we develop policies or regulations and bring them on board. If you haven’t built something, you cannot design a policy that will drive it. Bring the guys who have built it, bring them into the room. Let’s come on board and let’s have a discussion on what we think the digital economy should look like,” he further suggested.
Mr. Takyi-Appiah challenged the politicians to reimagine the digital economy.
“I want to challenge our lawmakers to understand the digital economy conversations, so that if a Minister came and said there is a blueprint we take them on,” he stated.
