NPP activist lists five reasons why the Ghana Card is superior to 1000 interchanges.
Nana Yaw Kesse, a New Patriotic Party (NPP) activist, has supported Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia's claim that the Ghana card is worth more than a thousand interchanges, citing five "compelling" reasons.
Kesse explained how the Ghana card will enable people to better secure credit, improve planning, revenue mobilization, and resource allocation, limit identity fraud in business, save costs, and help in the fight against crime in a write-up on social media in an attempt to clear the controversy created by the Vice President's statement.
He then claimed that the Ghana card is essential for raising funds for interchanges and determining where they should be located.
Read his write-up below:
Nana Yaw Kesse writes:
WHY & HOW THE GHANA CARD IS BETTER THAN 1000 INTERCHANGES
I tried to make this very short but ended up with this long write-up. Apologies.
In Dr. Bawumia’s recent speech on digitization he stated that the impact of digitization has been grossly underestimated and added that if he had to choose between 1000 interchanges and the Ghana Card, he would opt for the Ghana Card.
I have observed the commentary that has met this statement with both amusement and surprise.
I will even limit this discussion to just that Ghana Card as opposed to discussing the whole spectrum of digitization and digitalization and the impact on economic development.
One critical factor that forms the basis for any sustainable development is the availability of a national identity system anchored by a credible national identity database.
Why_is_this_important?
There are a “million and one” reasons but let me make this brief and simple.
A national identity system linked with a credible national credit bureau system will mitigate lending risk and unlock a new level of credit system for the Ghanaian. Thereby, expanding access to credit for the Ghanaian.
In more advanced societies, the database allows for a credit scoring system, which makes it easy for individuals to access credit cards by providing just their names and date of birth.
A national ID system will make it possible for the country to have credible data for planning, revenue mobilization and effective resource allocation.
Fraud & implications for Financial Services, Digital Commerce etc
A national ID system helps mitigate identity fraud and will improve financial services and digital commerce.
Cost_Savings
By centralizing citizenry identity data and reducing data duplications, a credible and harmonized national ID Card system will result in massive cost savings. The millions of dollars saved can then be used to fund infrastructure or other development efforts.
Crime
A national identity system will ensure that both citizens and non-citizens' biometrics are captured in a single database. When crimes are committed, suspects' fingerprints can be compared to a database to identify them.
The case of #Spain
A national ID system, for example, is credited with helping Spain become one of Europe's most developed and disciplined countries.
Spain was once one of the most underdeveloped and undisciplined countries in Western Europe. Citizens were not paying their fines, such as speeding tickets and parking fines, and were thus breaking the law with impunity.
The country established a national ID system, and once it was satisfied that everyone had been apprehended, enforcement began.
People at the airport waiting to board flights could not because the system had flagged them that they had fines to pay. People could not access all type of services.. renew their driving licenses, passports, or other important services.
Queues started mounting at various police stations as people rushed to pay their fines or negotiate some repayment.
Apart from the revenues raised, it set triggered a new sense of discipline and order which helped set Spain on the path to development.
Estonia
“Secure, authenticated identity is the “birthright” of every Estonian: before a newborn even arrives home, the hospital will have issued a digital birth certificate, and health insurance will have been started automatically”. All residents aged 15 or over have electronic ID cards, which are used in healthcare, electronic banking, online shopping, signing digital contracts, encrypting e-mail, tram tickets, and much more. In addition to making it easier for Estonians to go about their daily lives, Estonia’s online systems add 2% per year to its GDP and the use of electronic signatures in the country helps save 2% of Estonian GDP per year.
Australia
In joint research conducted by Australia Post and Boston Consulting Group, The potential value of a digital identity solution for Australia is identified as up to AUD 11 billion that could be saved through reduced cost to serve, cost of fraud and improved client experience. This AUD 11 billion represents approximately 1% of the Australian GDP.
UK
According to a joint study conducted by the Open Identity Exchange (OIX) and Ctrl-Shift, identity assurance costs for organizations could be reduced from £1.65 billion to less than £150 million.
The problem is straightforward....
A national ID system will allow for increased revenue, the plugging of revenue leaks, and the provision of funds for the construction and maintenance of infrastructure such as interchanges, among other things. That same database will even be used to make decisions about where to locate the interchange.
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