[CAVIE-ACCI] The South African Ambassador to Ghana, Lulu Xingwana has expressed satisfaction with Ghana’s rolled-out digital property address system. Ambassador Lulu believes Ghana’s digital address system is innovative and shows Ghana’s readiness to leapfrog its technological drive for rapid economic development.

The ambassador made this observation when she led a team of MBA students from the University of Witwatersrand Business School (WBS) to pay a courtesy call on the Vice President as part of their annual global tour, a requirement for all MBA students at the School.

At the meeting Vice President Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia took the students and academic leads from the Wits Business School (WBS) through the mandate and operations of the Economic Management Team (EMT) and the Presidential Delivery Unit (PDU). The Vice President 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 made by the Vice President were the steps Ghana is taking in the area of economic formalization through digitization. He expounded on some projects such as the digital property address system, national identification, mobile money interoperability, land records digitization etc.

On her part, the Ambassador to South Africa congratulated the government of Ghana for the many bold initiatives it has undertaken in the last 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”.

Ambassador Lulu further mentioned that currently in South Africa there are so many places without addresses but Ghana’s digital address system guarantees every 5 by 5 square meter location a unique address. This, she said is a step in the right direction for economic development.

The Academic Director of the Wits Business School, Prof. Paul Alagidede similarly expressed satisfaction with the current state of affairs of the Ghanaian economy and, together with some of the students wished that the current economic progress is sustained.

Richard Kofi Boahen