The DVLA has already connected its technology infrastructure with the NIA database while working on applications that would ensure that national identification cards (Ghana Cards) are integrated into the system.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the DVLA, Kwasi Agyeman Busia, told the Daily Graphic that full integration with the NIA would be completed by the first quarter of 2023.

“The technology infrastructure is ready, tried and tested. What needs to happen now is the application that we need to work. We have to do some coding on the application part to make sure that the systems are feeding into each other or handshaking so that once a person comes to DVLA and gives us their Ghana Card, we get every information about them,” he said.

Mr Busia said a seamless integration between the DVLA and the NIA would also facilitate business with other stakeholder agencies such as the National Insurance Commission, the Motor Traffic and Transport Division and the National Road Safety Authority.

He added many user agencies were negotiating with the DVLA to hook up to their database for ease of doing business, stressing also that the integration with the NIA would help to create a good data warehouse for real time information on drivers and vehicles.

“With the integration, when you are trying to apply for driver’s license, there is no need sitting in our office for two hours to fill forms. Once you give us your Ghana Card, we should be able to pull your data and make use of it,” he said.

Digitisation

Mr Busia said the authority had already digitised documents from 1995 to 2021 and was currently working on the 2022 records.

“We are more than 95 per cent through with the digitisation process, and we will be done by the end of the year so that when you come to us from the first quarter of 2023, we do not have to do any manual process.

Mr Busia said apart from the efficiency and reliability that came with it, digitised records were authentic and fast to work with.

He added that digitisation would facilitate the DVLA’s goal to have vehicles registered within one hour.

He explained that the digitisation of records would ensure that before any person visited the DVLA for any service, about 90 per cent of the processes would have been completed online.

“It means that we could just type a person's name and every vehicle you have owned and the history will be there,” he added.

Plugging leakages

Mr Busia said although the DVLA had not fully digitised its entire chain of operations, positive results had already been achieved.

For instance, he said, when the authority digitised the DV plates for vehicles in 2018, it plugged revenue leakages through that channel.

“If you compare the revenue with the previous year’s, the whole of 2017 was GH¢3 million, but in one month (January 2018), we recorded GH¢6 million. What that means is that a lot of revenue was going into private pockets,” he said.

AfCFTA

The DVLA CEO said the authority was putting its act together to take advantage of the huge market that the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) provided for the transport sector.

He said the authority was working to increase presence across the country’s land borders “where the money will come from”.

He explained that synonymous with what was done at the ports, payment of duty to get a DP plate would be done at the land borders such as Elubo, Aflao and Paga.

“That is why we are increasing presence at the land borders and leveraging technology so that we can collect the needed revenue and let the National Security know what is happening in the county from our sector,” he added.