Nii Amon Dsane ’05, knows that, “with greater trust in the election process, we will see more peaceful political transitions in Ghana and across Africa,”

Leading up to Ghana’s presidential elections in 2012, two Ashesi alumni, Nii Amon Dsane ’05 and Hanan Yaro Boforo ’10, served as engineers on the Ghanaian team that implemented the biometric register for the election. Nii served as the lead software engineer on this project and led the training of officials of the Ghanaian Electoral Commission who supervised the deployment of the biometric system. Thanks to their dedicated efforts, Election 2012 deployed technology that prevented multiple registrations and served as a secure verification system for voters who showed up to cast their ballots — a first in Ghana’s history. Their work strengthened the electoral system and built confidence in Ghana’s ability to use technology to streamline elections. There are now public calls to migrate to a fully electronic voting system in the future so that Ghana can eliminate the danger of incorrect counting and tally of votes. “Having a biometric voter register and biometric verification of voters will enable political parties, civil society, and citizens to have a greater degree of trust in the electoral process,” said Nii. “With greater trust in the process, we will see more peaceful political transitions in Ghana and across Africa.