Tourism Revenue Increases After Introduction of Electronic Payment System - Veep

By Yaw Kyei

Government revenue from the Ministry of Tourism Arts and Culture has increased in four folds due to the introduction of a pilot electronic payment system at the ministry.

The payment system was introduced some months ago at the ministry to digitize the collection and administration of fees at tourist sites and national monuments.

The decision aims to reduce the systematic corruption and siphoning of state financial resources into private hands

The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, told participants at the digital roadmap conference in Accra yesterday that the ministry's revenue had shot up four times since the introduction of the system.

The two-day conference which attracted stakeholders in the ICT industry, business community, among others, is being held on the theme 'Moving Ghana Beyond Aid-Expanding the Local Digital Economy.

It is aimed at assessing the country's use of ICT, identify gaps, and provide the right framework to harness the benefits of the digital economy

Vice President Bawumia said the success at the Tourism Ministry had shown that revenue mobilization would increase if payment systems at all ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) were digitized.

As a result, he said all MDAs would be hooked onto digital payment platforms by August 1 this year to enhance revenue mobilization and ensure quality public service delivery.

He said the government had built the digital platforms for all the MDAs and added that by June next year, all government payments would be done electronically.

With the mobile interoperability service, he said people could use the wallets on their mobile phones to may payment for any government services, including the payment of taxes.

"President Akufo-Addo wants to build a new Ghana. A Ghana beyond aid. The vision is firmly anchored in leveraging technology as a tool for development. Technology is what really drives the economy that is why as an economist, I am very interested in technology," he said.

Vice President Bawumia indicated that the government would aggressively pursue the formalization of the country's economy through digitization to accelerate the quest to become a middle-income economy

He announced a number of reforms the government had introduced in the past two years including the mobile interoperability, digital identification, property address system, digital drivers' licence, among others.

Very soon, he said the health sector would go paperless to digitize all medical records at the various hospitals.

"We want to make sure that we go paperless in the health sector so that you don't have to move from one hospital to the other carrying files, or one department of a hospital to another, it will all be digital," he said.

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