Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has said that the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has increased its annual revenue from 450 million cedis to 1.2 million cedis after the power distribution company went digital.
He also said that the passport office has seen a significant change in its revenue mobilization, from 1 million cedis to 64 million cedis. This indicates that the digitization process by the government has reduced corruption.
Speaking at the National Development Conference under the theme “Moral Vision and National Development,” Dr. Bawumia said that Ghana’s digitization drive has drastically reduced corruption.
He said that state agencies such as ECG and the passport office have seen a significant improvement in their revenues over the past few years. This, he said, is a result of the digitization agenda introduced into their systems.
Dr. Bawumia noted that ECG recorded a constant revenue monthly for four years, which was not correlating with the rise in customers.
He added that, the power distribution company was making 450 million cedis monthly, but after the digitization drive, the revenue has gone up to over 1.2 million cedis adding that this is an indication of how the digitization drive has reduced corruption and increased monthly revenue.
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The Vice President explained that same was replicated at the passport office, which was initially making 1 million cedis monthly but has now moved to 65 million cedis.
“In times past, it used to be easy to lie about your age and get away with it, particularly in the government sector. At the port, for instance, we have introduced the paperless system, and this came with resistance.
Some of the custom officers organized demonstrations against the move, but we were firm on our stance. Today, at the offices of ECG, you can buy your credit without any challenges.”
“The challenges with ECG initially were that the revenues of ECG were constant and the values were the same. We looked at the architecture of revenue of ECG and we changed it. They were collecting 450 million cedis a month as revenue.
We sent in a team to work on their system. There were sabotage attempts, such as people sending viruses into the system to destroy our work, but we were resilient and brought in a whole new architecture for ECG.
Today, they make over 1 million cedis as revenues monthly. The same happened at the passport office, which was making 1 million cedis to over 65 million cedis.”
Former Presidents John Agyekum Kufuor and John Dramani Mahama also spoke at the conference, highlighting the importance of holding on to our values as Africans.
Former President Mahama expressed concerns over the issues of traditional values and the adoption of alien cultures from other countries that have taken over our Ghanaian space. He charged Ghanaians to go back to the basics, where some key Ghanaian values were upheld in our societies.
“As Ghanaians, we have thrown away our values. Today, our cities are so dirty. When we were children and growing up, we used to wake up early in the morning and sweep our compounds. But today, that is not the case.
Today, society is not concerned about how we make money and the manner in which we make them. Greed and theft have taken over our space, and people who are engaged in that are celebrated, yet society is not concerned.”
Former President Kufuor, on the other hand, raised issues of morality in our Ghanaian society. He charged that morality must be treated with the needed importance in the Ghanaian space, adding that development can be justified in terms of its service regardless of tribe, religion, ideology, gender, or wealth.
“In the grips of technological advancement around the world, mankind seems to be losing the sense of itself and sadly of its creator, the almighty God. Thus, the word morals, which must equate with humanity, is taken for granted. A forum such as this must refocus our society and infuse and integrate morality in our search for proper development.”
Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo also addressed the gathering, indicating that there is a need for justice to prevail in all facets of Ghanaian life to ensure a peaceful coexistence among all manner of persons irrespective of their standings.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the Church of Pentecost Apostle Eric Nyamekye indicated the need for corruption to be dealt with by enacting laws that will deal with the menace. He noted that laws must not only be enacted, but the character, values, and competence of the nation must also be checked.
