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Blockchain Technology to Make Government Data Tamper-Proof – Bawumia
The Vice President and standard bearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has revealed that the next phase of the government’s massive push towards digitalisation will be the adoption of blockchain technology.
According to him, the move will make tampering with government data and records impossible, as the government continues to fight corruption in the public sector by leveraging digital tools.
Dr Bawumia, who has so far successfully led the NPP government’s digitalisation agenda, explained that when blockchain technology is successfully implemented, the government could be the first on the African continent to have a blockchain-based government.
“We will adopt blockchain technology for government to ensure that all data and transactions in government space are transparent and tamper-proof. Nobody can change them.
“And so ours could become Africa’s first blockchain-based government,” he said in Accra on May 9, 2024 in his speech to the 14th Commonwealth Regional Conference and Annual General Meeting of the Heads of Anti-Corruption Agencies in Africa.
With only about 1% of government agencies yet to be fully onboarded into the Government of Ghana’s digital platform, Dr Bawumia expressed optimism that all agencies will be digitalised by the end of the year for successful implementation of the phase next one.
“For Ghana, our next phase of the digitalisation journey is to complete the integration of our databases through the X-Road Integration infrastructure as done in other countries such as Estonia.
“We will then apply blockchain technology across the government, for the rapid and immutable identification of changes in digital data and smart devices.
“We are moving towards blockchain because blockchain technology makes it possible to discover any change made to digital data, no matter how small, no matter by whom, we will find it immediately.
“So blockchain basically stops corruption, and that’s where we’re headed, so that you can track and trace all transactions in the government space and that’s a very effective tool.
“Our goal is to make Ghana the first blockchain-based government in Africa and one of the few in the world. We believe we can be the first in Africa to do so,” he added.
The government has won praise for its digitalisation drive in public sector administration. Almost all government ministries, departments and agencies operate digitally, eliminating the manual system that left enough room for corruption.