QUESTION ONE:

Case Study: Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) Profile

Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) is a utility company, fully owned by the State. The company is responsible for portable water supply to all urban communities in Ghana.

GWCL currently operates eight-eight (88) urban water supply systems throughout the country. Average production is about eight hundred and seventy-one thousand, four hundred and ninety-six cubic meters (871,496m3) per day (192 million gallons per day). Present portable water demand is estimated at one million, one hundred and thirty-two thousand, eight hundred and eighteen point eighteen cubic meters (1,132,818.18m3) per day (249 million per day)

Urban water supply coverage is therefore about seventy-seven percent (77%), with a staff strength of three thousand, four hundred and seventy-six (3,476), GWCL serves Seven Hundred and Forty-Eight Thousand, Five Hundred and Seventy (748,570) customers, eighty-six percent (86%) of which are metered and fourteen percent (14%) unmetered.

Non-revenue Water Reduction

The global volume of non-revenue water is staggering, especially in developing countries. Some estimates put global NRW at 126 billion m3/year, costing some $39 billion per year (Liemberger and Wyatt, 2018), and average global NRW above 30 percent. In addition, close to 30 million cubic meters of water is also delivered every day to customers but not paid for, because of metering inaccuracies, theft, and corrupt practices. In Africa, NRW figures range from five percent (Saldanta Bay, South Africa) to seventy percent (LWSC, Liberia) have been reported ( WSP, 2009; cited GWCL, 2019). According to GWCL thirty percent (30%) or nearly a third of its customers are billed on estimated consumption rather than actual meter readings with current non-revenue water figure of forty percent (40%) from fifty-three percent (53%) in 2018.

GWCL has fourteen (14) operational regions and seventy-seven (77) operational districts. In 2016, GWCL formally established Non-revenue Water (NRW) sections at the Head Office, regional and district levels. However, an estimated eighty percent (80%) of NRW occurs in the Accra-Tema Metropolitan Area and Ashanti region. The responsibilities of the Section include:

Coordinating all NRW reduction activities in GWCL

Systematically develop NRW reduction strategies and Performance Improvement Plans for the various

regions and districts.

Undertake active leakage control

Implement pressure management

Implement the creation and operation of District Metered Areas (DMAs)

The three Accra-Tema Metropolitan Area (ATMA) regions and the two Ashanti regions contribute eighty percent (80%) of the reported water loss of the company. Table 1 shows the service delivery and efficiency targets for the period 2018 to 2023.

Table 1: Service Delivery and Efficiency Targets

Performance Indicator 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023

DC: ACD01-F004

NRW (%) 52.82 45.97 45 45 45 45

Resolution of complaints- commercial (hrs)

1

1

1

1

1

1

Resolution of complaints- Technical (hrs)

24

24

24

24

24

24

Resolution of complaints- water quality (hrs)

24

24

24

24

24

24

Source: Ghana Water Company Limited, 2018, p. 18

Notwithstanding, establishment of the NRW section, Stanley Mantey, Head of PR/Communication at GWCL, said at the signing of MOU with Aarhus City, Denmark that non-revenue water currently stands at forty percent (40%) of its production. Non-revenue water or loss water is when water produced into the system is lost before it reaches the customer, and hence cannot be accounted for also referred to as unaccounted water. According to the GWCL, this phenomena could be attributed to either a burst pipeline, leakage, water theft or non-payment; in particular MMDAs who owe the company huge sums of monies in arrears. For example, MMDAs indebtedness stood at over GHS 465 million as at December 2017.

Other initiatives to improve on GWCL operational efficiency and service delivery include:

E-Billing

The old billing software that had so many human interventions has been replace by electronic billing software where customers receive their bills via email and SMSs. Late and non-submission of bills will be gradually eliminated. The electronic billing has introduced:

Software as a service (SaaS)

Cloud based billing system (SMS and Emails)

Meter reading and monitoring applications

Call Centre Management

Customer/user application

Point of sale Application

The Customer billing is linked to customer location

E-Payment

One major challenge with the existing payment procedure was bill payments take at least 28 days to reflect on customers bills. Where payments are made in other regions or district, it takes a long time to be reflected in customer accounts. However, with the rolling out of the electronic payment system, a Virtual Private Network has been created through all payments made outside GWCL can be collected and monitored. Currently, payment could be made through:

Authorized Private Collections

Partner banks (GCB, Ecobank, SG-GH Bank, Prudential bank, Access bank)

Mobile Money(MTN, Vodafone, Tigo-Airtel, Slydepay, E-transact, expresspay)

Visa Cards, unionpay, and Verve

Point of Sale devices (POS)

DC: ACD01-F004

GWCL has transition to e-billing with increased use of mobile applications. The mode of reading meters, payments and monitoring are all done through mobile applications. The under listed android based application have been developed and are being improved to suit the changing needs of the company:

Mobile Apps

Customer Registration App(e-register)

Meter Reading App (e-reading)

Management App (e-manager)

Disconnection/Reconnection App (e-disc)

Customer App

Web-Based Apps

Web Portal

New Service Connection App

Notwithstanding, GWCLs management efforts to improve service delivery and efficiency, Wunpine Desah, an associated consultant at PytelNet (PytelNet is a Pan Africa software service provider), explained that the path towards optimal service delivery, efficiency and sustainable service is confronted with lack of system thinking/approach as there are too many silos in the room. For example, GWCL currently has over eight different mobile and web-based apps. She suggest an integrated approach; treating the whole water production, distribution systems as one integrated system.

Wunpine explained on this, saying working with smart meters and sensors, the PytelNet communication network securely transmits and receives customer usage data. This powerful, two-way communication network is designed to deliver data from automated meters and sensors directly to the utilities, faster and more reliably. Remotely readings of meters, identify non-revenue water, restore power and more.

Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) between GWCL/Tema and Aarhus City, Denmark

The MoU was signed by the Managing Director of Aarhus Municipality, Henrik Seiding, and the Managing Director of Ghana Water Company Limited, Clifford A. Braimah, is a continuation of the second phase of the Strategic Sector Cooperation between the two-including the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) from 2023- 2025, after the first phase that ran from 2019 to 2022.

Although the 40 percent (40%) loss is an improvement by the water company, as hitherto 55 percent of water produced was unaccounted for, GWCL says it wants to further reduce the losses and maximize revenue generation, hence signing the MoU with Aarhus City, which has a track-record of using modern technology to effectively cut its non-revenue water to below 10 percent.

According to MD of GWCL, Clifford A. Braimah, his outfit is hopeful the continued collaboration will assist the sector to improve its services to the citizenry. He said, non-revenue water is when water produced into the system is lost before it reaches the customer, and hence cannot be accounted for. This, could be due to either a burst pipeline, leakage or even theft and non-payment.

For his part, MD of Aarhus Municipality, Henrik Seiding, intimated that Aarhus has for decades worked with the issues like water-loss and protection, resource efficiency and the overall development of a smart and cost- effective utility that delivers services to the expectation of its citizens and industries, and is willing to share its experience with Ghana.

DC: ACD01-F004

The city of Aarhus is focusing on sustainable development of the city with regards to climate mitigation, climate adaptation and water management. It wants to contribute in accomplishing the ambitious SDG goals on clean water both in Aarhus and internationally. Aarhus is facilitating sustainable development sharing experiences, methodologies and technologies in water management, he noted.

Danish Experience of Water Utilities Management

A hallmark of water supply in Denmark is its being planned and managed with twofold appreciation for water as a valuable resource and the need to be mindful of energy consumption. Prioritizing across these levels has led Danish utilities to being at the forefront of developing smart water networks, fit for the twenty-first century.

In several notable municipalities the outcomes are plain to see. Non-revenue Water (NRW) is remarkably low throughout Denmark, but across the utilities of 3VAND - representing water utilities of the cities of Copenhagen, Odense and Aarhus together proving water to 2 million people it is just 6 percent. Meanwhile, national security of supply is practically 100 percent.

Supply as an Integrated System

What emerges from the ingredients of the Danish success with Non-Revenue Water (NRW) is that there is no single solutions, but rather a myriad of pieces to the puzzle, set in place with a holistic approach to planning infrastructure and managing operations. The latter dimension is described by Hgh as, treating the whole distribution system as one integrated system.

Hgh explained on this, saying: You have to look at optimizing your pipe infrastructure with separately metered district metered areas (DMAs), while at the same time adding all the necessary handles such as intelligent pumps and valves that react to the actual demand to improve pressure control and flow and combine with sensors and smart devices within a comprehensive management strategy. All sorts of factors are at play in lowering NRW; certainly, a longer-sighted solutions, built for the future, is much more cost-effective in the long-run

Danish DMAs therefore represent a multi-faceted solutions, incorporating novel physical technology alongside sophisticated monitoring and operating of the network via supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems.

Pia Jacobsen, chief engineer water reuse, at one of Denmarks largest water utilities, Aarhus Vand, explains this path to securing such low NRW, saying: Its a thirty year story, with a focus on water usage and leakage. The adoption of DMAs has been a major source of gains, helping us to bring NRW to around 5 percent.

But Jacobsen comments that implementing DMAs wasnt an overnight solution. Rather, they had to be refined over time: Weve learned much about optimizing the size of a DMA for monitoring the water balancing and leakage, integrating their management through common SCADA platforms, and the operation of multiple teams responsible for different tasks working across.

Source: Excerpts from GWCL Reports: 2018, 2019, 2022 and William Steel, 2022 (Credit to Dr. Nantogmah Danaa)

Required:

i. What is the main problem to be solved and what are its root causes? Conduct a root cause analysis

[4 marks]

ii. With the aid of a stakeholder wheel, identify relevant stakeholders [3 marks]

DC: ACD01-F004

iii. Define and explain at least one relevant metrics that can be used to measure if and how well the objectives of the MoU between GWCL and Aarhus city will be met. [3 marks]

iv. What kind of alternative solutions can you identify to address business need (s)? You are encouraged to search for information from other sources. [5 marks]

v. Based on the text, identify the requirements for your chosen solution(s), and develop some prototypes, and some designs of how the user interfaces would look. [15 marks]

QUESTION TWO:

Case Study: Byzantine Digitalization/dgital transformation Project

[TOTAL =30 Marks]

Byzantine is an Island state, on the Atlantic coast of West Africa. According to the 2021 National Population Census, it has a total population 3.8 million inhabitants. Goree is the national capital with a population of 2 million, the rest of population live in Saint Louis and Carabena while the lles de Madeline is an inhabited, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Since its independence from France in 1956, the country has successfully organize free and fair elections every five years to elect a president and members of parliament. Since 1956, the Citizens Trust Party (Trust Party) has won every elections and the currently holds a majority 46 MPs in the 60 member state legislature. All minsters are appointed outside parliament. It has a per capita income of $12 250 at the end of December 2021, according to the National Bureau Statistics.

Byzantine National Identification Authority (BIA) established under the National Identification Register Act 2021 (Act150). BIAs mandate is to register all Byzantine citizens home and abroad as well as all foreigner nationals living permanently on the four Islands which make up the Atlantic State of Byzantine. Byzantine National identification System (BIS) will provide a secure biometric register with a verification system. The BIS can track and trace and return accurate and up-to-date information on each individual. It provides a single source of the truth for the verification of persons.

- Objective: To provide seamless national a National Identification Card for the efficient and effective public services delivery - Byzantine Card

- Potential Beneficiaries: Reserve Bank of Byzantine, Byzantine Social Security Trust, Drivers and Vehicle License Authority, Byzantine Election Commission, Passports Office, Byzantine Birth and Death Registry, Byzantine Revenue Authority, Byzantine Health Service, Byzantine Health Insurance Scheme, National Communication Authority/Telecommunication/digital service providers. Ministry of Agriculture, Byzantine Policy Service and MMDAs (National Digital Address) etc

To avoid some of the mistakes made in Ghanas digitization project (see attached, Appendix I), the Government of Byzantine has appointed you as the Lead Consultant to the Byzantine Digitalization and digital transformation project.

Note:

If needed, you are free to make assumptions if (1) the assumptions do not conflict with anything in the text (2) the assumptions are clearly stated and reasonable.

Required:

i. Based on the information above, prepare a business analysis plan and map it to include what has already been done. Find anything else that needs to be added? [4 marks]

ii. Map the future state by modelling the business processes and the IT structure. [4 marks]

DC: ACD01-F004

iii. What alternative solutions can you identify given the information above (and perhaps with making reasonable assumptions)? [4 marks]

iv. Given the information above, list a set of high-level business requirements. [8 marks]

[TOTAL= 20 marks]

QUESTION THREE:

The University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) Enterprise and Innovation Centre is aimed at fostering the spirit of entrepreneurship by unearthing, grooming and supporting students with compelling business ideas into viable businesses.

VPayAfrica Foundation is a blockchain not-for-profit organization dedicated to digital financial inclusion and entrepreneurship. The foundation in collaboration with UPSA Enterprise and Innovation Centre have launch Africa Innovation Challenge to support ten (10) outstanding innovation business ideas from young people across the fifty-four (54) countries of the Africa Union. The 2022/2023 edition is based on the theme: Garbage into gold- turning plastic trash into gold

Required:

a. Given the information above, and making reasonable assumptions, develop a business model canvas for your idea [2 marks]

b. Submit your entry (Business Plan) to participate in the 2022/2023 Africa Innovation Challenge

[8 marks]

Note: Your answer shall not be more than THREE pages