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The Vice President and NPP flagbearer, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia says there has been significant progress to move Ghana's economy to a formal economy in enhancing the country's transformation.

Speaking at the 20th edition of the Ghana Club 100 Awards in Accra on Friday, Dr. Bawumia said seven years ago when the government assumed office, the economy was largely informal and for transformation to take place just as it is in developed economies, there was the need to resolve the age-long problems.

"When we came into office, we were facing some major challenges in the area of the informal economy.

"Before you can build an economy that is going to be transformational and policies that are going to be transformational, you need to take care of major problems that are in the informal economy.

"You look at an economy which in the informal sense turn to be undisciplined. The society is undisciplined because the economy is informal and there are no significant consequences for bad actions", he stated.

The Vice President further listed a number of ills associated with the then informal Ghanaian economy, establishing that the government has made significant progress in resolving the challenges through its effective digitized systems.

"You have a society where corruption prevails, you have lawlessness. You have a tax dodging society, you have an unbanked society. You have a loan repayment society, identity fraud, that is people assuming the identities of others or fake identities, lack of address systems, age cheating, fake insurance, fake birth certificates, no passport, ghost workers on government payroll.

"These ills of the informal economy we really inherited makes it difficult for the economy to transform to its potential. That is why we set out to formalize the economy to make sure that the economy worked on transparent systems and that area of formalization of the economy, we relied heavily on digitization of the economy to formalize the economy", he stressed.

Ghana Card As Anchor For Economic Formalization 

Dr. Bawumia reitereated the significant role Ghana's national biometric identity system, the Ghana Card, has played in formalizing the economy.

He said; "Of course, the anchor for this digitalization programme has been the Ghana Card that we issued and today, we have enrolled over 17 million people to the Ghana Card. We have linked all bank accounts to the Ghana Card, linked all sim cards to the Ghana Card. Your tax identification number is your Ghana Card. Your NHIS number is your Ghana Card. We have linked the Ghana Card number to the Controller and Accountant General Department payroll."

"Today, we are seeing this increasing formalization of the economy as a result of digitalization and we are digitalizing government services through Ghana.gov and so on."

Stressing government's commitment to partnering with the private sector, Dr. Bawumia emphasized the formalization programme is one of the surest ways to ensuring a thriving economy.

"What all of this is doing is that it is bringing formalization and transparency and that helps businesses. It makes the systems clearer; it reduces corruption because you can apply for services, buy electricity, get a licence, get a passport without going to meet any who will ask for bribe. This transformation will continue."

The Ghana Club 100 Awards honours and recognizes the contributions of the private sector to Ghana's economic development.