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Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, says government would undertake digital registration of land titles next year to boost the mortgage market.

   He said the current mortgage relative to income in the country was the highest in the world and noted that, this would not help in developing sustainable mortgage market.

   He noted that using property to secure a loan was important to boost the economy, but there was difficulty in authenticating property owners, therefore the digitisation of the land title registration would help in that regard.

   Vice President Bawumia made the disclosure at the 21st National Banking Conference of the Chartered Institute of Bankers in Accra on Tuesday on the theme: ‘‘Building a Robust and Sustainable Banking System in Ghana’’.

   The event afforded stakeholders in the banking industry the opportunity to discuss the changing reforms in the local and international economy in order to make them resilient and robust in undertaking transactions as well as being responsive to the needs of their clients.

   It brought together top echelon of the financial institutions in the country who shared their experiences and ideas aimed at making them competitive and relevant in the changing banking sector.

   The Vice President said government recognised that before the country could develop and remain competitive on the global market, certain fundamental measures must be put in place.

   It is in this direction therefore that government upon assumption of office, started rolling out digitisation programmes such as the National Identification System, National Property Addressing System, implementation of the paperless ports project, e-procurement processes, digitisation of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority and digitisation of other state institutions, to promote financial inclusion, enhance efficiency and minimise corruption.

   He said these were the building blocks that would improve the country’s resource mobilisation and ensure operational efficiency.

   Dr Bawumia noted: ‘‘We need to have the soft infrastructure to support the banking industry and this is what is driving the national ID card, digital addressing system and other digital programmes so that we can trace customers, build a robust referencing regime and these will be fundamental in reducing interest rate and strengthening the stability of the banking system’’.

   The Vice President gave the assurance that, both government and the Central Bank would play their respective roles of controlling and ensuring the stability of the fiscal environment.

  He therefore, urged banks to develop innovative products that would rope in the informal sector of the economy to ensure financial inclusiveness.

  Dr Bawumia said: ‘‘Government is pushing for the interoperability of the payment system between the telecommunication companies and banks and hopefully by the middle of next year it will be launched’’.

  He noted that, government had consolidated the macroeconomic environment with the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth moving from 3.7 per cent in 2016 to 7.9 per cent as projected by the close of the year.

  He added that, the prudent economic policies by government had reduced the inflation rate, Treasury bills, monetary rate from 26 to 20 per cent and inflation rate from 15.4 to 11.6 per cent respectively.

  Reverend Mrs Patricia Sappor, the President of the Chartered Institute of Bankers, in her welcome address, said in view of the recent development in the banking industry, there was the need for renewed emphasis on the recapitalisation of banks to increase their fiscal capacity to transact bigger ticketing deals while mitigating the underlying risk.

   She said the banking industry had significant role to play in building a robust and resilient economy to ensure the maximisation of the shareholders’ value, protection of the depositors’ fund and generating profits.

  Mrs Sappor urged stakeholders to act quickly to resolve the outstanding policy pieces and ensure financial soundness and stability of the financial industry.