Ghana got her COVID-19 tracker app for free, Communication and Digitisation Minister-designate, Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has told Parliament’s Appointments Committee during her vetting on Monday, 15 February 2021.

“Many countries, at the outset of the pandemic, tried to use technology to assist them in contact-tracing, and for people to self-report to give an overview of what is happening in the various countries to enable the health authorities handle the situation.”

“Certain public-spirited individuals extended all kinds of support to the government, and some companies also offered to put their expertise at the disposal of the government, which we gladly accepted, resulting in the creation of the tracker app.”, the Ablekuma West MP told the Committee, adding: “The app didn’t cost the government a pesewa”.

She stressed: “We did not pay anything for the app”.

Ghana's Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, during the launch of the app in Accra on Monday, 13 April 2020, stated that the gathering and availability of data had played a significant role in Ghana's battle against COVID-19 at the time.

Dr Bawumia, who was the Chairman of Ghana's COVID-19 Daily Monitoring Team, noted that the government’s reliance on data of cases had become Ghana's biggest weapon in the fight against the Coronavirus.

"Data is our most powerful weapon in the fight against COVID-19. You cannot fight what you cannot see," said Dr Bawumia.

Dr Bawumia said the app was expected to significantly boost the government’s main strategy in combating the virus, which he labelled as "the three-T" strategy of testing, tracing contacts and treatment.

"Our focus has been on tracing, testing, treatment, as well as observing social distancing and these have been made possible through data, and this COVID-19 Tracker will significantly help.”

With the launch of the GH COVID-19 tracker app, Ghana's COVID-19 team has a mobile app with rapid response features for contact tracing and symptoms tracking, which will ultimately lead to more testing - a development the Vice President described as a great step.

"The launching of the GH COVID-19 Tracker App today is yet another step by the government to leapfrog technology in finding solutions to the havoc the COVID-19 pandemic is wreaking around the world."

"This is another weapon in our arsenal. It will provide us real-time data and allow a quick, early response by our professionals," Dr Bawumia said.

The COVID-19 Tracker App, through the common platform of mobile networks, is able to trace contacts of persons infected by the virus, show where they have been in recent time, through various telephone-related data, and link such people to health professionals for urgent action to be taken.

The app, through the same telephone-related data, is also able to report contacts which are, or have recently been to COVID-19 hit countries, as well as track whether individuals required to self-quarantine, are indeed doing so.

Countries like China, South Korea and the United States are using this concept of crowdsourcing from phone data to manage and track persons affected by the pandemic and offer health care.