The global adoption of blockchain technology is accelerating. Governments around the world are taking notice, exploring its potential to bring greater transparency and efficiency to their operations.

Ghana is poised to become the first African nation to adopt blockchain technology for its government operations, according to Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia. The announcement was made during the 14th regional conference and annual general meeting of the heads of anti-corruption agencies in the Commonwealth of Africa, held in Accra from May 6 to May 11.

"We are going to adopt blockchain technology for government to ensure that all data and transactions in the Government space are transparent and tamper-proof, no one can change them, and so ours could well become the first blockchain-powered government in Africa," stated Bawumia.

This initiative is part of Ghana's Digitalization Strategy, which has been in place since 2017. The strategy has enabled the government to collect 201 billion GH₵ (approximately $14.2 billion) since 2023 through the digitization of public services via the Ghana.gov platform. Additionally, the new digital ID card has allowed the government to detect 404,707 fictitious names on the payroll of the National Service System and 29,000 phantom pensioners.

By adopting blockchain, Ghana aims to secure government data in a fail-safe manner. According to Bawumia, this technology will serve as a bulwark against corruption by monitoring every modification made to digital data.

Blockchain is an advanced database mechanism that allows for transparent sharing of information across a network. It can be used to record contracts, financial transactions, digital assets, votes, and much more, in a decentralized and secure manner.

Samira Njoya