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 said, is the latest phenomenon in digital transformation, which will contribute immensely to the development of nations that embrace it with all seriousness.

While urging Africa to prioritise it, Dr. Bawumia, however, warned that countries that were lagging behind in digitalisation, or countries that had not made progress in digital infrastructure, will struggle to effectively implement AI, as "there can be no AI without digitalisation."

Inspite of his concerns over limited progress by African countries in digitalisation, Dr. Bawumia was upbeat, as he named a few exceptions he said had showed the way in digitalisation, and therefore, we're on track to embrace AI.

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Among those special group he mentioned included Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa and Ghana, which he highlighted the digital transformation he contributed significantly as Vice President to place Ghana in readiness for AI.

"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 described Ghana’s approach to digitalisation as “holistic,” focused on "bottlenecks like lack of identity documents and lack of addresses, and anchored by transformation enablers such as the Ghana Card (which is Ghana’s national digital identity card) and the Digital Address System, because 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 scale infrastructure, not a pilot," he added.

To buttress to the audience the success story of Ghana's unique national identity system, Dr. Bawumia shared a National Identification Authority report, which states that, as at 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 so many other African countries which are way behind in digital transformation, Ghana is a regional leader and as a result of the foundation built, Ghana can move on to the next level.

"Ghana’s Ministry of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations has begun UNESCO AI Readiness Assessment Methodology consultations and states that outcomes will 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.