{"id":1153018,"date":"2022-07-19T12:44:59","date_gmt":"2022-07-19T12:44:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/07\/19\/us11-5-trillion-global-digital-economy-is-a-sure-way-to-economic-growth-veep\/"},"modified":"2022-07-19T12:44:59","modified_gmt":"2022-07-19T12:44:59","slug":"us11-5-trillion-global-digital-economy-is-a-sure-way-to-economic-growth-veep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/07\/19\/us11-5-trillion-global-digital-economy-is-a-sure-way-to-economic-growth-veep\/","title":{"rendered":"US$11.5 trillion global digital economy is a sure way to economic growth\u2014Veep"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"font-size: 17px;\">\n                                                   Accra, July 19, GNA &#8211; In this era of fourth industrial revolution, Ghana must take advantage of the $11.5 trillion global digital economy, representing 15.<\/p>\n<div class=\"kMultiLine\">5 per cent of the global gross domestic product (GDP) to spur growth and job creation, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia has said.<\/div>\n<div class=\"kMultiLine\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/1.21528459.jpeg\" width=\"100%\" height=\"\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" class=\"kMediaObject\"\/><\/div>\n<div class=\"kMultiLine\">He said this at the launch of Ghana&#8217;s first National Electronic Pharmacy Platform (NEPP) in Accra, to promote easy purchasing of medications and access to pharmaceutical services online.<\/div>\n<div class=\"kMultiLine\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/1.21528460.jpeg\" width=\"100%\" height=\"\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" class=\"kMediaObject\"\/><\/div>\n<div class=\"kMultiLine\">He said the global e-pharmacy market was worth $52 billion and expected to grow at an annual compound rate of 19.5 per cent from 2022 to 2030 and believed that leveraging on digital technology would enhance economic growth.<\/div>\n<div class=\"kMultiLine\">The e-pharmacy platform was developed by the Pharmacy Council of Ghana, in collaboration with other health regulatory agencies.<\/div>\n<div class=\"kMultiLine\">It is ensure unlimited access to online pharmacies and pharmacists by subscribers for medicine purchase or enquiry, and a courier service to deliver medications within a limited time frame to individuals who make requests.<\/div>\n<div class=\"kMultiLine\">The backbone interconnectivity platform creates a web of relationships among several stakeholders including consumers, pharmacies, pharmacists, doctors and regulatory authorities.<\/div>\n<div class=\"kMultiLine\">&#8220;You must all remember that you cannot transform  an economy with brick and mortar. You can only transform an economy with ideas, systems and institutions,&#8221; Dr Bawumia added.<\/div>\n<div class=\"kMultiLine\">He said the platform would be integrated into other health ecosystem in the country to ensure safe, secure and transparent dispensing of medicines and pharmaceutical services.<\/div>\n<div class=\"kMultiLine\">The NEPP had also been linked to the Food and Drugs Authority&#8217;s database to authenticate medicines requested by applicants to promote confidentiality and public safety.<\/div>\n<div class=\"kMultiLine\">Dr Bawumia lauded the Pharmacy Council of Ghana, Governing Board of the Council, and all stakeholders involved in the noble initiative for the yeoman&#8217;s job and called for an effective monitoring mechanism to avoid any potential abuse.<\/div>\n<div class=\"kMultiLine\">&#8220;The NEPP will help monitor the activities of unlicensed online pharmacies, improve the pharmacist-patient ratio and facilitate pharmaceutical service delivery,&#8221; he said.<\/div>\n<div class=\"kMultiLine\">&#8220;This I believe will, among other things, address four key concerns in the provision of pharmacy services; reduction in the sale of unlicensed medicines, ensuring confidentiality of health information, privacy of patients\u2019 medical records, and minimizing counterfeit and sub-standard medication in the country,&#8221; Dr Bawumia stated.<\/div>\n<div class=\"kMultiLine\">The idea of having an integrated electronic pharmacy platform for the regulation and availability of medication online is a developing conversation in many countries.<br \/>\n Beyond the immediate need to improve public safety and  patient access to pharmaceutical service, there is also an economic benefit that is yet to be tapped.<\/div>\n<div class=\"kMultiLine\">\u201cThe Government finds this platform not only important in linking patients to the approved licensed pharmacies, registered pharmacists, and critical pharmaceutical services, but also a critical innovation in safeguarding the future of our youth, providing avenues for job creation, and digital start-up business innovations and economic growth,\u201d the Vice President said.<\/div>\n<div class=\"kMultiLine\">He gave the assurance that the Government was committed to working with all stakeholders to ensure the highest standards in the practice of pharmacy by ensuring that pharmaceutical service providers had the right qualification, practice in accordance with set standards, and accessible to the whole population.<\/div>\n<div class=\"kMultiLine\">&#8220;Our interest as a government in digitalization stems from the fact in the fourth industrial revolution that the future is digital,\u201d Dr Bawumia said.<\/div>\n<div class=\"kMultiLine\">&#8220;Digitalization helps us to reduce bureaucracy and corruption in the delivery of public services, increase efficiency, reduces the cost of doing business, and makes life easier for citizens.\u201d<\/div>\n<div class=\"kMultiLine\">&#8220;This is a great day for Ghana and we should all be justifiably very proud. It has taken a lot of hard work by everyone involved.\u201d<\/div>\n<div class=\"kMultiLine\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/1.21528498.jpeg\" width=\"100%\" height=\"\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" class=\"kMediaObject\"\/><\/div>\n<div class=\"kMultiLine\">Ghana is the first country in Africa and one of only a few in the world to launch a national scale electronic pharmacy platform with all licenced pharmacies required to be a part of it and linked to the FDA.<\/div>\n<div class=\"kMultiLine\">Mrs Doris Fosu-Hemaa Addae-Afoakwa, the Chairperson, Governing Board of the Ghana Pharmacy Council, who chaired the event, said the NEPP would ensure an affordable and  competitive pricing for medications and provide an alternative drug administration in Ghana.<\/div>\n<div class=\"kMultiLine\">Interested persons could log on to: www.gnepplatform.com to register to purchase authorised medicines, make enquiry or seek pharmaceutical services.<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Accra, July 19, GNA &#8211; In this era of fourth industrial revolution, Ghana must take advantage of the $11.5 trillion global digital economy, representing 15. 5 per cent of the global gross domestic product (GDP) to spur growth and job creation, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia has said. He said this at the launch of Ghana&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[3523,3010,1963,6128,20848,14786,20849],"class_list":["post-1153018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-business","tag-digital","tag-economic","tag-economy","tag-growthveep","tag-trillion","tag-us11-5"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1153018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1153018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1153018\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1153018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1153018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1153018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}