IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

The Ghana e-Government (GeGov) Project, which would deliver a new electronic system designed to automate Business Registration and Tax Administrations at the Registrar General’s Department (RGD) and other revenue agencies would be launched in Accra on Thursday.

The Project, which is a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) between GCNet and the Government, would cover the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).

A statement issued by the GeGov secretariat in Accra on Tuesday, named the Project collaborators as the Ministry of Communications, GRA, RGD and the National Information Technology Agency.

Read more: Ghana government GeGov Project goes live with launch of taxpayer registration module

The flagbearer of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has called on the Electoral Commission of Ghana to put in place a verification system in addition to the biometric registration system which Ghana would be using in the 2012 general elections.

According to Nana Addo, adding a verification system to the biometric voting process would help check cases of double voting, impersonation and several other electoral malpractices that crop up during elections.

Read more: GH: Biometric voting system must be verifiable - Akufo-Addo

Ghana Free Zones Board (GFZB), in demonstrating commitment to provide quality services to its stakeholders both locally and internationally, has shifted from the traditional website to a dynamic web portal.

In addition to the English Language, the website employs Chinese (both simplified and traditional), French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish as its medium of communication. This, according to the Board, would enable GFZB to reach out to customers and potential ones in more than one language.

Read more: GH: Free Zones Board Launches New Website

Ghana is almost certainly gearing towards a revision of our voters’ registration and the Electoral Commission has been mandated and resourced to introduce biometric registration in the last quarter of the year. The fact that our current voters’ register has outlived its usefulness is well known and agreed upon by many political analysts. The fact also that the government has allocated GHC50 million to the Electoral Commission to implement biometric registration is also equally know.

What is however uncertain is the kind of biometric technology the Electoral Commission is buying into and whether the biometric register that will be created will be able to stop multiple voting. Biometric verification is any means by which a person can be uniquely identified by the evaluation of a biological trait such as fingerprints, hand geometry, earlobe geometry, retina and iris patterns, voice waves, DNA or signatures. Almost certainly, the Electoral Commission will be using the finger prints trait which is the oldest form of biometric verification. In its simple from biometric in verification mode means biometric data, is stored on a smart card allowing for almost instantaneous personal identification. These are already employed in some bank automatic teller machines allowing for recognition of cards so that people cannot exceed their withdrawal limit.

Read more: GH: Biometrics without verification is a meaningless exercise