KOFI ANOKYE OWUSU-DARKO (BLOG 1)

  Digitalization is supposed to not only bring efficiency to the operations of the service provider but also provide seamless customer experience and convenience to the consumer. Either way, digitalization with respect to Government-to-Citizen (G2C) interactions should allow for an enjoyable public service delivery. It is not a heart-warming digitalization experience trying to renew a passport on the e-government (Ghana.Gov) online application platform. The online passport application for both new and renewal has seven stages. Start, Applicant, Education, Citizenship, Guarantors, Witness and Preview. The functionalities in terms of the User Interface Design (UID) may be working but the User Experience Design (UXD) has been poorly done. We cannot invest in the digitalization of public services and yet not get the benefits anticipated. This article is to share my experience, more of frustration, trying to renew an existing passport online and to highlight how ill-designed the system

  Indelible ink has been used in Ghana in previous elections to mark voters as proof of voting and to publicly show that a particular person has already voted and cannot vote multiple times. This was a risk management and control tool to ensure elections were free and fair. The recent District Assembly elections conducted were done without the use of indelible ink for the reason that the biometric voter database and verification system, is robust enough and that there is no need for the tested use of the indelible ink. Not using the indelible ink in the District Assembly elections cannot be seen as a test run for the general elections in December 2024. In any event, even the District Assembly elections had in place a fall back by using photo IDs and a printed voters’ register for manual identification. We should be mindful that a District Assembly election is not the same as a national election where the stakes are much higher to ignore the need to use the indelible ink. Technically