The New Patriotic Party (NPP) says it has plans to accelerate Ghana's growth into a world-class digital economy and make the country the digital hub of Africa. This will be achieved through policies, competitive incentives and investments. Sharing highlights of the vision at the launch of the 2024 Manifesto of the Party, the NPP Flagbearer, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, said the Party when elected into office would invest in developing local talent and tech start-ups. The Party, he said, would among other things train one million young people in all areas and levels of digital skills, eliminate import duties on mobile phones until manufacturing capacity was established in Ghana and implement a comprehensive data interoperability across government platforms to enhance transparency and streamline services. He said the Party was working with educational institutions and leading Ghanaian and global tech firms to establish a National Robotics, Engineering, and AI Lab for research and training of young Ghanaians locall y. They will also provide venture funding and grant support for commercially viable tech projects by Ghanaian start-ups to drive innovation, foster high-tech entrepreneurship, create jobs, and support growth of Ghanaian high-tech businesses. 'We will provide live lab opportunities to Ghanaian tech start-ups under a Matchmaking Programme by purposely connecting them to matured/large tech firms working on government tech projects to help start-ups test their ideas in real-world environments, and to accelerate their product development cycle,' he said. Dr Bawumia said the NPP would work with the Bank of Ghana to significantly expand Regulatory Sandbox to admit more Ghanaians as well as regional Fintechs. 'This will position Ghana as a Multi-Regulatory/Multi-Jurisdictional Sandbox for financial and payments interoperability,' he said. He said the Party would establish a Fintech Fund with seed capital of US$100 Million to attract additional private sector funding to support Ghanaian start-ups developing payme nts and financial services solutions, specially focused on region-wide, exportable solutions. He said a new NPP government would continue to lead in the African Union policy campaign to achieve cross-border mobile money interoperability to enhance significantly the buying and selling of goods and services across Africa. 'This will instantly expose Ghanaian enterprises and young entrepreneurs to a market of 1.4 billion people,' he indicated. The Flagbearer said the Party would implement a Digital Residency (e-Residency) for businesses and individuals in tech firms, to register and operate from within Ghana; implement a 5-Year Digital Nomad Visa and Work Permit to attract global tech talents to domicile and work from Ghana and appoint a Digital Ambassador to develop new external markets for Ghanaian digital talent and products. He said the NPP led government would increase internet penetration to over 90 per cent as in advanced economies, compared to the current rate of 70 per cent. Dr Bawumia said holders of GhanaCard would not be required to fill separate forms to apply for passports under his government, saying he would create a marketplace to streamline public sector procurement and also abolish E-Levy. Source: Ghana News Agency