Tema Regional Manager of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), Samuel Owusu-Kwarteng, is optimistic the Authority’s quest to go digital can enable them to accelerate operations significantly.
According to him, going digital will make business operations highly efficient, transparent and more productive, creating new values for customers and pursuing new revenue streams.
He told the B&FT in an interview that DVLA has really moved forward with so many innovations which took off with the ‘Genesis System’ of the licencing department, a system used for acquisition of licence that is currently fully automated; and also with integration of the Vehicle Registration System (VRS) into the genesis system, DVLA will be fully automated.
Mr. Owusu-Kwarteng hopes by the end of second quarter 2022, the Authority will fully deploy the Vehicle Registration System (VRS) and get enrolled on the Integrated Customs Management System (ICUMS) so as to operate a paperless activity to reduce the numerous files they work with.
“When the VRS which is in motion is fully implemented, it will make the work very simple for us. There will be no need for us to fill the papers again. After you have done your pre-inspections and so forth, the mode of identification here is the Ghana card which will be verified from the National Identification Authority (NIA).
“By this, impersonation will be a thing of the past because we are fetching your details directly from a reliable source – which is the NIA data. And also, because there is an interface between DVLA and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), all your Customs documents will be straight from the ICUMS and then we use them for processing,” Mr. Owusu-Kwarteng noted.
Impact of COVID-19
“COVID-19 has taught us a lot of lessons; with DVLA going digital you can sit in the comfort of your home and office, and with your smart phone apply for a new licence, renew licence and vehicle registration, generate your invoice, then come here with only the invoice and walk to the bank with your invoice number to make payment and we continue with the process for you.”
Performance for 2021
From January to December 2021, the region was able to register 26,870 vehicles compared with January 2020 to December 2020 – when they registered 21,882 vehicles representing an increase of about 22.8 percent as compared 2020 to 2021.
“Come this year, we are hoping to do better and increase the percentage from 22 percent to 50 percent. I have a formidable team and we plan to do more of outreach programmes so that clients will patronise our services,” he said.
