The South African Ambassador to Ghana, Madam Lulu Xingwana, has expressed satisfaction with Ghana’s digital property address system, saying it shows the country’s readiness to adopt innovation to leapfrog its technological drive for rapid economic growth.
She made the observation when she led a team of MBA students from the University of Witwatersrand Business School (WBS) to pay a courtesy call on Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia at the Jubilee House in Accra, as part of their annual global tour.
Vice President Bawumia took the students and academic leads through the mandate and operations of the Economic Management Team (EMT) and the Presidential Delivery Unit. He also touched on how policy decisions are made at the appellate level of government at the EMT and devolved for implementation.
Key among the highlights were the steps Ghana is taking in the area of economic formalisation through digitisation and some projects such as the digital property address system, national identification, mobile money interoperability and plans for land records digitisation.
Madam Xingwana, in response, applauded the Government for the many bold initiatives it had taken in the past 22 months. “I must say from where I stand that I am happy for your government and South Africa is prepared to take a cue from the many good things you are doing, especially the digital address system. We don’t have such a robust address system in South Africa as yours and we will be glad to tap from your experiences,” she said.
Madam Xingwana noted that there were many places in South Africa without addresses and acknowledged that Ghana’s digital address system guaranteed every 5x5 square meter location with a unique address.
This, she said, was a step in the right direction for economic development.
Prof. Paul Alagidede, the Academic Director of the Wits Business School, said he was satisfied with the performance of the Ghanaian economy and expressed the hope that the progress would be sustained to engender growth.