Bawumia: ‘Smart formalisation’ will surmount Africa’s challenges

Former Vice President of Ghana, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has stated that the key to overcoming Africa’s longstanding development challenges lies in a strategy he terms “smart formalization”—a digitally driven approach to transforming public administration, economic systems, and service delivery.

Giving the keynote address at the Cambridge Africa Business Conference themed ‘Africa’s Digital Transformation: Building Resilient Economies Through Innovation,’ on Saturday, May 17, Dr. Bawumia lamented that after more than 60 years of independence, many African countries still face deep-rooted problems that hinder productivity and progress.

He outlined the major challenges including the lack of unique identification for citizens, absence of a functional national property address system, a large informal sector dependent on cash transactions, widespread financial exclusion, lack of individualized credit scoring, high interest rates, fragmented and manual government databases, inefficiencies in health service delivery, limited access to healthcare in rural areas, and poor revenue mobilization due to weak tax compliance.

He argued that these conditions have led to low productivity, high unemployment, and persistent poverty across the continent.

“Let me quickly dive into what I believe presents the greatest opportunity to surmount these challenges and turn them into progress,” he said. “The solution will have to be one that accelerates Africa’s development… In short, it is what I term ‘smart formalization’. In this regard, digital transformation is not just a policy aspiration—it is a necessity for resilience.”

Dr. Bawumia explained that “smart formalization” involves building integrated systems that enable governments to know their citizens better and interact with them efficiently and affordably. He emphasized that this approach creates a “virtuous cycle” where governments deliver better services, citizens engage more transparently and safely, and development is accelerated.

Drawing parallels with the post-WWII development trajectories of countries in the Global North, he pointed out that modern technology—including blockchain, artificial intelligence, and mobile computing—gives African nations the chance to leapfrog outdated systems and adopt smarter, more inclusive economic models.

Dr. Bawumia therefore called on African governments to fully embrace digital transformation, not only as a modernization effort but as a strategic solution to entrenched structural challenges.

Through “smart formalization,” he believes the continent can foster inclusive growth, improve public service delivery, and build resilient economies.