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Opinions of Monday, 13 November 2017

Columnist: Peter Antwi Boasiako.

Indeed Ghana's GPS Digital Address System better than that of UK

The GPS makes locating addresses easy The GPS makes locating addresses easy

Exactly how it works and truly, the fact that one can find the exact postcode at spot for a particular location at any point in time, indeed makes Ghana's digital addressing system unique and quite better than that of UK and perhaps US.

The fact is, the only thing UK navigation system gives you when you're stuck somewhere or car brokendown on the road at unknown place, is the only name of street/road, indicating your location, the Google GPS would not be able to give you the exact postcode of where you're standing in UK, this is because, the UK postcodes are provided physically by the borough/council for houses only not every location on the road, streets or open fields. However, the Ghana's NDPA System does give you the exact postcode at your exact location anywhere in Ghana, indicating the Region, the District and the exact location where you find yourself per 5×5 square metres, all generated with letters and numbers. This makes it uniquely easy to be able give this postcode to whoever is coming to look for you or to give it out for help in an emergency.

The argument that the whole idea was modeled from the existing google map software or the Global Positioning System (GPS) which might have been tried or used in one or two countries before Ghana's, is totally immaterial.

It was a perfect move that Ghana's modeled GPS used the existing latitude and longitude drawn navigation Apps on the Google map so that it would be compatible with all the new and future navigation softwares, to integrate into Ghana's GPS easily.

We are talking about Ghana, not Ivory Coast or Nigeria that might have used this same Application before. If you stand in Nigeria and enters a postcode used in Ghana there, it would upload the direction from the location in Nigeria to the postcode location in Ghana, and vice-versa. In fact, who really cares about what Nigeria or Ivory Coast uses?

As a matter of fact, I have explained this and communicated exactly the same on many platforms even before Dr. Bawumia had broken it down further today. It is quite intriguing that the NDC is making it sound so difficult to understand. I had to school some CPP guys recently on this Digital Addressing System and they never came back again on this matter. People lack the understanding, including Prez John Dramani Mahama, either purposely or out of true ignorance. John Mahama had the guts to call it system 419? Chaii.

What I would advice when Dr Bawumia or the system manufacturers are completing their public comments on this system, is to be emphatic that, yes, anyone can generate his or her own digital address to obtain their unique postcode address within every 5x5 square metres for their respective residence, but to register that generated address to serve as your own permanent address at post office, one would need to support it with evidence, such as the proof of land ownership, tenancy agreement, house ownership, etc, to show that indeed that address can be registered permanently in your name. This must be made clear!!

Again, what Dr. Bawumia needs to stress on is the fact that, one can easily find the exact location postcode for the security services in an emergency or for a friend coming to visit or meeting up on the road somewhere. It would make life more easier in Ghana. UK doesn't have that system to be able to find the postcode automatically at spots on the road. Postcodes in UK are privatelying owned and are physically provide by the local council or the borough. One needs to be told what the physical postcode is at any destination, before you can enter it into your navigation system. Google would only GPS only gives the geographical location and the names' of the road or street. I believe those who have car breakdown cover and have had their cars broken down on the before can attest to this, the difficulty in explaining their location to them on phone, that you can't find a postcode on road for AA company or any breakdown cover company for that matter.

Generating the digital postcode address on your phone using the Ghana GPS App is different from registering the address generated as your own permanent address at the post office. Am sure this process would be part of the entire package of the National Identification, Digital Driving licence, Banks interoperability system, etc, when all completed. These are different things and must be made clear to Ghanaians, including Prez John Mahama.