Digital public infrastructure can make everyday services easier to access. But a service that works technically is not automatically a service that people will trust.
The World Bank’s work on digital public infrastructure frames shared systems as foundations for other services. That framing invites an equally important question: who can use those foundations, and what happens when something goes wrong?
My view
Trust is part of the infrastructure. Clear explanations, accessible support, and meaningful ways to correct mistakes matter as much as an elegant interface. A payment or identity system becomes useful when ordinary people can rely on it without needing to understand its technical architecture.
For Ghana and other economies building digital services, the opportunity is to make accountability part of the design from the beginning.
What to watch
Ask how a person disputes an incorrect record, gets help with a failed transaction, or uses a service without the newest phone. The answers reveal whether the system was built around its users.