Comparing Ghana.GOV with NDC’s e-services website is like comparing ‘aboboya’ and Benz – Ursula Owusu-Ekuful

The Minister for Communications and Digitalisation, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has outlined the successes chalked by the government’s online services portal, Ghana.GOV.

The Minister noted that since its establishment, it has facilitated the revenue collection of GH₵210 billion from 136 agencies using the platform for live payments. She said the platform has addressed many online service payment challenges.

For this reason, the Minister said it is untenable for anyone to compare the Ghana.GOV portal with the e-services payment portal established by the NDC.

“There is no comparison between the NDC’s e-services portal and the Ghana.gov. it will be like comparing chalk and cheese or ‘Aboboya’ and Mercedes Benz or Tesla,” she said at a press briefing on Sunday, February 18.

According to her, President Akufo-Addo’s government discontinued the use of the e-services portal in 2018 which was established by the NDC because “it could not reach a broad user base due to inadequate connections in significant parts of the country.”

She asserted that a total amount of GH₵186 million and GH₵213 million in 2016 and 2017 respectively were paid through the NDC’s e-services portal and GH₵286 million in 2018.

President Akufo-Addo after discontinuing the use of the e-services platform by the NDC entered into a partnership with three local technology firms, Hubtel, Express Pay and IT consortium to establish Ghana.GOV, a digital service and revenue collection platform.

This was in line with the government’s vision of digitizing the economy and modernizing the way Government pays its bills and collection of fees and charges.

About Ghana.GOV

Ghana.GOV is a digital service and revenue collection platform, created to provide a single point of access to Government of Ghana services for the public sector.

This is in pursuit of the government’s vision of digitizing the economy and modernizing the way the government pays its bills and collects fees for the benefit of all citizens, residents, and visitors.

The service portal seeks to deliver the processing of all payments and transfers (both electronic and cash) against the predefined service flows of each MDA and MMDA.

The platform also manages post-payment workflow, customer notification, feedback, and service ratings. This will help the government fulfill its goal of creating a cash-lite economy.