The Mamponghene, Daasebre Osei Bonsu II, has endorsed Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s digitalisation agenda describing it as a bold and transformative step for Ghana.

The traditional leader praised the NPP presidential candidate for his visionary approach to leveraging technology to drive national development.

Daasebre Osei Bonsu II who highlighted several key initiatives under the digitalization agenda, including the introduction of the Ghana Card, and the digitization of public services, noted that these efforts are already yielding positive results.

He made these remarks when the vice-president paid a courtesy call to the Ashanti Regional House of Chiefs on Day 1 of his “Bold Solutions” tour on Monday (10 June) at Manhyia in Kumasi.

“The policies you’ve touched on are in detail. These are very good and laudable, especially the digitalisation agenda which permeates through practically everything. Even babies would be born with ID cards and these new things are dear to our heart as traditional and I urge you to be bold and implement it to the latter”, he said.

For his part, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia announced plans to introduce “living allowances” for traditional leaders.

This initiative aims to support their roles as custodians of tradition and culture while enhancing collaborative governance efforts between traditional authorities and government institutions.

Explaining the rationale behind this proposal, Dr Bawumia emphasised the pivotal role of chieftaincy in shaping societal values. He believes it is essential to empower chiefs financially to carry out their responsibilities effectively without economic constraints.

“Today, paramount chiefs are paid GH₵1,000. It is not going anywhere; it cannot even buy enough fuel to attend meetings. My manifesto team has looked at all this and we are saying that we have to pay living allowances to paramount chiefs, and not stop there but to the divisional chiefs and the queen mothers so that we can have a complete chieftaincy institution that is empowered to help the government,” Dr Bawumia stated.

He assured that if elected president, his government would ensure chiefs are financially empowered to execute their mandates.

Dr Bawumia proposed granting equity stakes in mineral resources to traditional leaders within their respective jurisdictions. He believes this will be a major solution to tackling illegal mining activities across the country.

According to the vice-president, involving traditional leaders in land management in collaboration with district assemblies can deter illegal miners who exploit regulatory loopholes.

He argues that giving chiefs an equity stake will incentivize them to protect their lands from degradation and promote sustainable mining practices.

“The resource, whether it’s a gold mine or whatever, when we find gold in your area, then you have a stake in it, an equity stake. The district assembly has an equity stake. Once you have an equity stake, you will not allow the land to be misused,” Dr Bawumia said.