Leader of All People’s Party, Hassan Ayariga has criticized Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia’s recent lecture at Ashesi University themed “Using digitization to transform an economy – The Ghana story”.
In Dr. Bawumia’s lecture, he announced that efforts are underway to get the International Civil aviation Organization to recognize the Ghana card as an e-passport in the first quarter of next year.
“When this happens, holders of the Ghana Card will be allowed to board any flight to Ghana. Furthermore, the good news for diasporan Ghanaians is that when the Ghana Immigration Service is linked to the NIA architecture, diasporan Ghanaians who hold the Ghana card should not have to obtain visas to travel to Ghana,” Dr. Bawumia added.
Countering Dr. Bawumia’s lecture the APC leader noted that one needs a passport to enter any country.
In his words “You will need a passport to enter any country, and definitely, a passport to return and not your Ghana Card. Please digitalize our cedi.”
He further quizzed the Vice President to mention one country in the world that its citizens can enter Ghana or any other country with their ID Card.
It is sad and amazing to hear our Vice President Dr. Bawumia say Ghana Card will be used in 197 [195] countries by 2022,” Mr. Ayariga noted.
Mr. Ayariga went on to rubbish the lecture calling Dr. Bawumia’s plans as “unrealistic”
According to Hassan Ayariga, “Identity (ID) cards are not traveling documents, the world accepts only passports as traveling documents.”
He also noted that the Ghana card cannot be used as a legitimate document to verify Ghanaians citizenship and identity.
He then called on the government to rather channel more efforts into digitalizing the cedi to boost the economy.
However, some members of the opposition party National Democratic Congress (NDC) reacted to the government’s digitization project hence, called on the Vice President to reveal the project cost.
Keta MP, Kwame Gapkey, in an interview with JoyNews last Wednesday wants the government to tell Ghanaians the project’s cost.
The legislator called on the government to commit itself to improve infrastructure in the country.
Whereas, Madina MP, Francis-Xavier Sosu, says digitalization is not the answer to the widespread economic hardship and mismanagement in the country.
Source:joynews
