African Anti corruption Agencies Embrace Bawumias Call For Technology Use In Corruption Fight

Over two hundred representatives from 21 African countries who recently converged in Accra, Ghana, for the 14th Commonwealth Regional Conference of Heads of Anti-Corruption Agencies in Africa, have agreed on the need to rely on innovation as a major tool in combating corruption and corruption-related crimes.

Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia who had earlier given a presentation on digitalization, its importance and the need for a paradigm shift,  posited that with the right digital tools and their appropriate use, digitalization can defeat the worst forms of public corruption, including the networks that underpin corruption networks.

“I posit to you that with the right tools and its use, we can deploy digitalization to defeat the worst forms of public corruption, including the networks that underpin themhellip;While bribery, revenue leakage, and corrupt networks and value chains are some of the most pressing issues in the fight against corruption that threaten the future of African youth, we also have at our disposal digital technologies to identify members of corrupt networks, to account for revenues collected and to block revenue theft, as well as to track money and suspicious activity”, he had argued.

According to him, the deployment of digital tools has shown that with more investment and better tools, there is the possibility of eliminating the worst forms of corruption that weigh heavily on African economies.

Dr Bawumia, who has so far successfully led the NPP Government’s digitalization agenda, revealed that the next phase of the Government’s massive digitalization drive will be to adopt blockchain innovation, which will make it impossible for Government data and records to be tampered with, as Government continues to fight corruption in the public sector by leveraging digital tools.


He explained that when blockchain innovation is successfully implemented, Ghana’s Government could be the first on the African continent to have a blockchain-powered Government.

“We are going to adopt blockchain innovation for the government to ensure that all data and transactions in the Government space are transparent and tamper-proof.  No one can alter them. And so ours could well become the first blockchain-powered government in Africa,” He disclosed.

Following his presentation, delegates in their Ten-Point Communique, unanimously embraced the proposition by the Vice President for the use of innovation in combating corruption in the current era.

“Member countries should scale up the use of innovation to combat corruption; Anti-Corruption agencies should intensify corruption prevention given the evolving corruption landscape; Commonwealth African governments should commit adequate resources to Anti-Corruption agencies, to ensure the latter’s effectiveness and sustainability at fighting corruption”, the communique said.