Made in Ghana Summit pushes for stronger public, private partnership ... To drive digitisation

Lead discussants at the Made in Ghana Summit have called for a strong public private partnership (PPP) to help identify key bottlenecks that need to be removed to further accelerate the country’s digital transformation.

They were of the belief that PPP could form the cornerstone of a successful move to digitisation as it was an effective strategy for bringing together the resources and technical expertise needed to deliver on digital transformation goals.

Speaking at the second edition of the summit last Friday, the Executive Secretary of the National Identification Authority (NIA), Professor Ken Attafuah, and the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications, Dr Ken Ashigbey,  both agreed that PPPs could improve digitisation of the economy through collaborations that combined innovative efforts from the private sector, forward-thinking policies from governments, support from academia and encouragement from civil society actors and organisations.

Made in Ghana Summit

The event, organised by Entrepreneur Foundation of Ghana (EFG), was on the theme: “The Role of Public-Private Partnerships in Sustainable Digital Transformation.”

It brought together public and private sector chief executives, captains of industry, policymakers and entrepreneurs, as well as some members of the diplomatic corps.

Among issues discussed were the government's digitisation, industrialisation and business development agenda. 

Synergy of strength

Prof. Attafuah stated that collaborative efforts between NIA and its technical partners, Identity Management Systems II Limited (IMS II) best exemplified the centrality of the role of PPP in fostering digital transformation and taking societies beyond new frontiers of growth and development.

The NIA boss said one of the key advantages of the partnership was the synergy of strengths.

“The NIA, as a governmental body, brings to the table the overarching vision of a unified and secure national identification system, an appropriate and effective legal and regulatory framework, public trust, public sector organisational competence and social mobilisation and stakeholder engagement skills.

“On the other hand, the private partner, Margins Group, contributes cutting-edge technologies, specialised knowledge and the agility needed to implement solutions that meet the evolving needs of our dynamic society,” Prof. Attafuah stated.

He said the Ghana Card, a product of such collaboration, stood as a symbol of efficiency, security and inclusivity.

Through the strategic combination of public resources and private innovation, and the intelligent allocation of risks, he said both the NIA and the IMS II had been able to implement a robust and future-ready identity management system.

“This system, supported by a robust identification and verification platform not only meets the highest international standards, but also addresses the unique and evolving identification challenges and aspirations of the Ghanaian people,” Prof. Attafuah stated.
 

Affordable handsets 

Dr Ashigbey, for his part, said an area that should critically be looked at was how the public and the private sector could work together to ensure the country achieved the right taxation levels for the telecommunications and technology industry to ensure that more Ghanaians had access to affordable handsets to connect to the rest of the world.

Citing Rwanda as an example, he said through a partnership between the private and the public sectors, the citizens were being given free smart phones.

Dr Ashigbey said Ghana had made very good progress in the digital transformation journey but more could be done on both the side of government, as well as the part of industry and academia.

“Effective public-private partnerships offer opportunities we should not ignore on our journey to sustainable digital transformation as a country.

“We can do it, we should do it. None of the parties should wait.

Let’s use opportunities, including this conference, to build bridges for collaboration between government, the private sector, the third sector and academia,” the CEO emphasised.