Gideon Boako, the spokesperson and economic adviser to Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia, has challenged Bright Simons and Franklin Cudjoe of IMANI Africa, a policy think tank, to apologise over their “misleading comments” regarding Bawumia’s statement on the credit scoring system in Ghana.
Addressing the 57th graduation of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology last week, Bawumia extolled the benefits of the Ghana Card in helping the country establish a robust credit scoring system to track and uniquely identify all borrowers.
In a sharp response, the officials of IMANI downplayed the accuracy of the information put out by Bawumia. The two made references to a credit bureau company XDSDATA Ghana limited, arguing that the agency has the system Bawumia was referring to already.
However, XDSData Ghana Limited, a leading credit bureau in Ghana, has clarified through a press release that it has not produced individual credit scores in the country.
Following the development, Boako has challenged the two to eat the humble pie and apologise to their social media followers.
He wrote on X, formerly called Twitter:
According to the managing director of XDSData, George K Ahiafor, Ghana Card penetration, a potential unique identifier, is currently at 35%, as indicated by tracking from the Bank of Ghana (BoG).
Ahiafor anticipates that XDSData will start releasing individual credit scores when Ghana Card penetration reaches 90%, hopefully by the end of the year 2024.
In a statement issued on Tuesday 5 December 2023, XDSData Ghana said, in spite of its “capabilities”, it has not been able to produce scores due to the absence of a unique identifier like the Ghana Card.
“XDSData Ghana Limited, Ghana’s leading Credit Bureau wishes to inform the public about the bureau’s capability of producing individual credit scores as stated in the document Credit Reporting Activity, Annual Report 2022 published by the Bank of Ghana,” the statement said.
“Despite our capabilities, the bureau has not produced scores. This is because of the lack of a unique identifier. Currently, facilities are accessed by individuals using different kinds of identification which makes it difficult for the bureau to be 100 percent sure of capturing a credit subject’s total exposure.
“However, XDSData Ghana Limited produces credit information just like any International Credit Bureau, adequate for lenders to be able to make informed credit decisions,” it added.
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