VP Bawumia, Paul Kagame, William Ruto, Mackey Sali Named Among 100 Most Influential Africans | General News

Naming Dr. Bawumia as one of Africa's most influential leaders, the publication eulogized the Vice President for his transformational leadership, noting that his reforms are setting "unique precedents on the African continent."

'The Oxford-trained economist, former Deputy Governor of Ghana's Central Bank and Vice President of the Rephblic of Ghana since 2017, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia is spearheading Ghana's digitization as a core economic strategy to solve socio-economic problems, formalize and build a more inclusive economy, deal with corruption and to provide social services more effectively," wrote the magazine.

"His reforms are setting a unique precedent on the continent. His digitization agenda has resulted in the implementation and adoption of a National Identification System, a Digital Property Addressing System and a Mobile Money Interoperability System. This is enabling a new set of opportunities for the consumer including mobile wallets and greater financial inclusion."

"Bawumia sees technology as the key to transforming the economy and delivering essential services," the publication added.

Dr. Bawumia was also commended by the magazine for initiating Ghana's recent oil for gold barter initiative, which seeks to pay for imported oil with Ghana's gold, rather paying with its reserved US Dollars - a smart move to curb the depreciation of the Cedi, as well as control the rising cost of fuel in the country.

IMPACT OF DR. BAWUMIA'S DIGITIZATION INITIATIVES

With the transformational policies Dr. Bawumia has championed, Ghana has achieved the following: successfully issued digital national identity cards to Ghanaian nationals and residents, become the first African country to adopt a national digital property address system, become the first African country to implement mobile money interoperability between mobile money accounts and bank accounts, been ranked number one in terms of access to financial inclusion in Africa, become the first country in Africa to implement a universal QR Code payment system and Ghana has also become the first country in the world where banks have issued their own mobile money wallets known as GhanaPay.

Through his digitization initiatives, Ghana has also become the world's largest provider of medical delivery services using Zipline drones to deliver medical supplies to remote parts of the country in real time.

Ghana has also become the first country in Africa to implement a national scale E-Pharmacy digital platform, and the country has also figitized the provision of government services using a common digital portal (Ghana.gov), as well as a common digital platform for property taxation in Ghana - all contributing immensely to revenue mobilization.

New Africa Magazine's latest honour, adds to the growing list of international acknowledgment of Dr Bawumia, for his starring role in Ghana's acclaimed digitization drive.

Recently, the UNDP, through its country rep, Angela Rusigi, described Dr. Bawumia as a "champion of digitisation", adding that his efforts have contributed to 'inclusive and accelerated development.