Former Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, once again placed Ghana’s acclaimed digital success on the international stage at the 2026 London School of Economics and Political Science Africa Summit.
Speaking on the theme “Artificial Intelligence and Uniting Borders,” Dr Bawumia called on African countries to prioritise artificial intelligence, which he described as the latest phase in digital transformation that will contribute immensely to the development of nations that embrace it seriously.
While urging Africa to prioritise AI, Dr Bawumia, however, warned that countries lagging in digitalisation, or those that have not made significant progress in digital infrastructure, will struggle to effectively implement AI, stressing that “there can be no AI without digitalisation”.
Despite his concerns over limited progress by some African countries in digitalisation, Dr Bawumia remained upbeat, citing a few exceptions that, he said, have shown the way and are therefore on track to embrace AI.
Among these countries, he mentioned Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa and Ghana, highlighting the digital transformation efforts he significantly contributed to as Vice President, which have positioned Ghana for AI readiness.
“In my public work, I have consistently argued that digital transformation is not a luxury; it is a development imperative, especially for job creation, service delivery and inclusion. The practical logic is simple: you cannot scale digital services, let alone AI, if you cannot identify citizens reliably and keep verifiable records,” Dr Bawumia said, referring to Ghana’s robust digital pillars: the national biometric identity system, the digital address system and a seamless, interoperable digital payment system.
Dr Bawumia recalled a 2021 keynote address in which he described Ghana’s approach to digitalisation as “holistic”, focused on “bottlenecks” such as the lack of identity documents and addresses, and anchored by transformation enablers such as the Ghana Card (Ghana’s national digital identity card) and the Digital Address System. He noted that people can only be served at scale when they can be identified and located across systems.
“Ghana’s opportunity for AI starts with the fact that identity has become a scale infrastructure, not a pilot,” he added.
To buttress his point on the success of Ghana’s national identity system, Dr Bawumia cited a National Identification Authority report which states that, as of 13 February 2026, Ghana had enrolled 19,310,568 Ghanaians and issued 18,496,113 cards.
“The next step is governance: transforming these rails into trusted datasets and accountable AI-enabled services, with clear privacy safeguards and transparent oversight.”
The former Vice President added that, unlike many other African countries that are lagging in digital transformation, Ghana is a regional leader and, as a result of the foundation built, is well positioned to move to the next level.
He further noted that Ghana’s Ministry of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations has begun consultations under the UNESCO AI Readiness Assessment Methodology, with outcomes expected to inform Ghana’s National AI Strategy.
“AI scales fastest where digital public infrastructure is strong and where public trust is protected by design,” Dr Bawumia stressed.
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