Vice President Bawumia yesterday outdoored a new ‘smart card’ for drivers’ licence and vehicle registration in Ghana, thereby introducing the paperless revolution at the Driver and Vehicular Licensing Authority (DVLA).
Prior to that were a number of challenges confronting the nation relative to reported fake licences, fake roadworthiness stickers, fake number plates and fake documents, which led to security threats and massive revenue shortfalls to government.
There were also problems with people trying to obtain a drivers’ licence or even to renew an existing licence.
But with this new process that has been put in place at DVLA with the two smart cards, the vice president said, “It means that practically, it should take anybody a maximum of two to three weeks to obtain a licence in Ghana” and that “once you’ve passed your test, if you opt for the premium service, you should get your licence in one day,” describing it as a remarkable progress.
Beginning with the introduction of these smart cards, Dr Bawumia said, “DVLA must immediately move to providing secure payment options with several variations to its clients.”
He talked of President Akufo-Addo’s unwavering desire to see Ghana’s economy transformed under his leadership, for which reason the veep said, “We are working day and night to ensure this happens to the benefit of the people of Ghana who have reposed their confidence in the government.”
This, he said, was part of reasons why they had set out to ensure the formalization of the economy, having taken several initiatives in this direction to ensure that every Ghanaian and foreigners resident in Ghana, are appropriately identified and offered unparalleled opportunities to do business.
Chief among them was the launch of the National Identification Project, Paperless Port Project, E-Procurement at the Public Procurement Authority, E-Business Registration and Certification at the Registrar General’s Department, the National Digital Property Addressing System, with the latest being the smart drivers’ licence and vehicle registration cards.
With these, Dr Bawumia concluded, “Ghana is definitely on the road to modernization. All these initiatives are expected to operate collaboratively to ensure that Ghana becomes the preferred place of doing business in Africa and beyond.”
Government has since charged the DVLA to ensure that there is constant innovation in its operations, and to also ensure that Ghanaians or foreign nationals who are eligible to drive or want to register their vehicles do so under optimal conditions.
He said the government would support any effort to make the public sector efficient.
Dr Bawumia noted that these new initiatives would go a long way in fighting corruption in Ghana.
<<Print>>