President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said all efforts must be made to bridge the gap between the poor and the rich.

According to him, his government has taken several steps to ensure that more Ghanaians are lifted from poverty.

He noted that the introduction of the free Senior High School (SHS) programme is one surest way of ending poverty in the country.

Delivering the keynote address during the 61st Independence Day ceremony on Tuesday, 6 March, the president said: “Fellow Ghanaians, we now live in a digital world and to be competitive, we have to be a part of and take advantage of digitisation. Since assuming office last year, we have undertaken deliberate policy reforms to digitise Ghana to formalise our economy.

“The national identification and address system, the drivers licence and vehicle registration, the paperless operation at the ports, inter-operability of payment systems in the financial sector, are all geared towards modernising our economy and we should begin to feel the difference when all these measures become operational later this year.

“I am looking forward particularly to the digitisation of the land registration process to help the mortgage market, and help release hundreds of billions of cedis to finance our development.”

He added: “Fellow Ghanaians, at its core, the poverty gap is a technology gap. The mastery of technology is what at the end of the day separates developed from developing countries, or rich from poor countries.

“This is a gap we have to bridge. We are laying a strong foundation for an educated and skilled workforce of the future through the free Senior High School (SHS) programme, which this academic year enabled 90,000 additional young Ghanaians to enroll in SHS. These are our future scientists, engineers, modern farmers, innovators, entrepreneurs, and transformation agents!”