The Chief Executive Officer of Stanbic Bank, Mr Kwamina Asomaning, has called for the mainstreaming of digitisation into the national psyche.

He said due to the transformative power of digitalisation, such a move was critical, explaining that the world had evolved and digitalisation was a sure way to keep up and stay relevant.

Speaking at the second Graphic Business/Stanbic Bank Breakfast meeting for the year in Accra yesterday, he said it was important for Ghana to leverage digitalisation to achieve its dreams.

“How do we inculcate digitisation in the formative years of children such that it becomes their way of doing things? he quizzed at the meeting, which was streamed live on the Graphic social media and Multimedia platforms.

It was on the theme: ‘Digitisation: The Key to Unlocking the Ghanaian Dream,’ and explored ways through which digitisation could be used to reduce the cost of doing business in the country.

Mr Asomaning noted that for majority of Ghanaians, their biggest dream was to have economic freedom and find opportunities that would enable them to live their dreams.

He said although digitisation held a lot of opportunities, on its own, it was not the end.

Therefore, he emphasised that it would be crucial for leaders to understand the implications of digitisation on their countries, organisations and employees.

“Digitisation not only changes the way of working, but also accelerates the speed of change that companies and nations are facing.

Yet, he explained that many digital transformation initiatives struggled to realise the expected business and social benefits, a struggle, he said, some studies had attributed to the neglect of organisational issues relating to people and culture.

“How people adapt to the changes happening around them. These trends underscore the need to consider unique skills and competences, new approaches to leadership and new organisational capabilities alongside the digitisation drive,” he added.

Commendation

Mr Asomaning commended government and, specifically, the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, for the efforts made to digitalise and formalise the economy through initiatives such as the National Digital Property Addressing System and National Identification Card Project.

Leveraging digitisation

The Chief Executive Officer of Hubtel, Mr Alex Bram, an industry player and a member of the panel of experts for the occasion,corroborated the call by the Stanbic Bank CEO saying that, digitisation was the key to realising the Ghanaian dream.

He said Ghana had scored first in many things concerning technology in Africa, a development which had changed the economy and many other things.

“There is so much to be proud of. A lot has been done to digitise the economy. We are seeing the benefits - the more we digitise, the more the economy is growing and its inspiring new thoughts and new ideas from businesses like us,” he noted.

Notwithstanding, Mr Bram said there was a lot more to be done because 60 per cent of the Ghanaian population were still not connected to the internet.