The Vice President of the Republic, H.E Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has disclosed that the government accrued GHS56.7 million in revenue from online passport applications alone in 2021.
The amount he stated represents a significant increase in the GHS1.1 million the government made in 2017 when the passport office only processed 16,232 applications.
He was speaking at the 2022 annual national internal audit and governance conference in Accra.
Dr Mahamudu Bawumia recalled the digital agenda of the government to formalise the economy and the opposition they faced.
He said it has not only changed the processes of acquiring a passport today and made it easier but it is also helping the government to make millions of cedis that would have gone into private pockets.
He added that digitization of the passport application process has resulted in a major increase in the number of passports processed annually as well as the revenue yield to the passport office.
”There has been a major change in how business is done at the passport office. Before we started the digitization process in 2017, we had about 16,000 passport applications a year, and the passport office was making Ghc1 million and Ghc1.1 million a year but since the digitization was introduced we have about 498,000 passport applications, and the passport office made GFhc56 million. So you can see night and day what was before and after.”
He emphasised that the digital drive of the DVLA and other government agencies has all yielded positive results.
Meanwhile, he has argued that Mobile Money Interoperability is one of the biggest achievements Ghana has ever made at a cost ”of only Ghc4 million” compared to the previous estimate of $1.2 billion.
He said it has increased the value of mobile money transactions in the cumulative value from 7.1 billion in 2017 to 978 billion at the end of last year.
The annual internal audit conference is geared towards developing strategies to improve public financial systems.
President of the institute of internal auditors, Madam Harriet Karkari spoke about legislation to improve internal audit practice.
She said the strategic plan was developed to raise the stature of the internal auditing profession, improve the quality of their work, visibility of the profession and growth of the Institue.
She added that the goal of the Institute is to significantly increase the number of practitioners who hold the globally recognised flagship certifications.
The Institute she maintained will continue to lift the internal audit profession to the level it deserves and get the legal status required.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
