Mahamudu Bawumia: From political outsider to Ghana’s ‘Mr Digital’

Bawumia campaigned on this economic know-how during his attempts to become VP. Therefore, he faced heavy criticism when Ghana plummeted into its most severe economic crisis in years under his watch.

Inflation hit a record 54% in December 2022 and the country was forced to take a $3bn (£2.3bn) loan from the International Monetary Fund after government debt soared.

In response to the criticism, Bawumia has said the economic management team he headed had no “decision-making powers” and that it merely provided advice to the government.

But for many, this wasn’t good enough.

“In terms of character, in terms of integrity, people started questioning themselves: ‘What is this? How did it end up here? We thought you were the best guy, and look at where we’ve ended up’,” Franklin Cudjoe, a Ghanaian political commentator and head of the Imani Centre for Policy and Education, told the BBC.

Along with his role as an economist, Bawumia has also built the reputation of being a digital visionary.

Ghana’s digital ecosystem has seen “significant growth” especially in areas such as mobile phone connectivity, Charles Abani, head of the United Nations team in Ghana, remarked last month.

This “remarkable digital transformation” was “spearheaded” by Bawumia, news website African Business, external reported, while Ghanaian newspaper The Chronicle, external hailed Bawumia’s “expertise in global digital transformation”.

Bawumia said he initiated a partnership between Ghana’s government and US-based company Zipline, which led to the creation of the world’s largest vaccine delivery network.

He said he reached out to Zipline, which uses drones to fly health products to hard-to-reach clinics, after his father died from a loss of blood.

Although this passion for technology is celebrated by some, others are more sceptical.

Mr Cudjoe said Bawumia has been campaigning on digitalisation rather than confronting debates about the government’s handling of the economy.

“Whether Bawumia was in power or not, digitalisation was bound to happen in this country because we had already started it anyway,” Mr Cudjoe said.

Dr Sefa-Nyarko said of Bawumia: “What he has been very successful at is to push and also claim all credit for digitalisation outcomes of the current government.”