Move beyond mere rhetoric to actual digital reforms, Bright Simons to govt
No clear coherence in digitalisation drive, IMANI Africa
Bright Simons, Vice President of IMANI Africa, has opined that the digitalisation agenda of the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia-led government has not been a transformative one.
According to the technology entrepreneur, the agenda which is being spearheaded by Vice President Bawumia lacks clear policy coherence.
Speaking on the Citi TV’s Point of View segment on Wednesday, January 19, Bright Simons explained, “there are some bright spots but taken as a whole, it’s not transformative. In some respect, it’s actually quite problematic. There are instances where I fear because it’s so hyper-branded and the political stakes are so high.”
He continued, “I think the policy coherence is important, and for these big initiatives that we are talking about, there are internal contradictions that fuel the cynicism. It’s almost as if they were genuinely doing this in good faith.”
The IMANI Africa Vice President pointed out that the Vice President [Mahamudu Bawumia] and his advisory team would not have undertaken some strategies as earlier touted if they were duly committed to digital reforms.
“There are many cases in this digital agenda that if the Vice President, his advisory team and government were duly committed to the digital transformation, they wouldn’t do things that way in terms of objective and actual practice”, Bright Simons said on Citi TV.
He further called on government to re-evaluate some of its strategies and move beyond politically motivated policies in order to improve the livelihood of all citizens.
“Unfortunately for the Vice President, we have a lot of evidence to question his commitment. But in questioning the commitment, we hope for a change in the policies"
"I was quite impressed until it became clear to me that Dr. Bawumia relied on this to appeal to a youthful audience to create a new narrative that will make him stand out among politicians, and while that is not necessarily bad, I felt a bit betrayed.”
“It was purely a political PR opposed to the genuine commitment to a policy of using digitisation to transform Ghana,” Bright Simons stressed. Read Full Story
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