NPP Gives Communications Ministry 30 Days To Disclose Rural Telephony Status

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has given the Ministry of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations a 30-day ultimatum to publish a comprehensive status report on the Ghana Rural Telephony and Digital Inclusion Project.

In a statement, the NPP's Policy Committee on Communications and Digitalization is demanding full details on the number of sites constructed, connected and currently operational, as well as those built but still out of service.

The demand follows a briefing by Communications Minister Samuel Nartey George on the state of rural connectivity and government's plan to upgrade rural telephony sites to at least 4G.

The statement, signed by the Chairman of the NPP Policy Co-ordination Committee, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, rejected claims that the past decade was marked by neglect in rural connectivity, insisting that significant investments were made under the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia administration.

According to the NPP, the Ghana Rural Telephony and Digital Inclusion Project was launched in 2020 with a €155 million facility from the China EXIM Bank, targeting 2,016 sites to serve between three and four million people in underserved communities.

The party said by January 2025 when it left office, 1,961 sites had been constructed, with equipment available for an additional 400 sites.

It however raised concerns about the pace of deployment since the change in government, alleging that no new rural site was constructed in 2025 despite the availability of equipment.

The NPP further claimed that more of the constructed and activated sites are now non-operational compared to the time of handover.

The party also disputed claims that 46 sites in hard-to-reach areas cannot technically be connected, stating that a satellite hub at the Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT was upgraded to provide backhaul services to those communities.

It argued that the sites remain unconnected because the contracted hub service has not been taken up and paid for, describing it as a commercial and administrative issue rather than a technical challenge.

While welcoming government's intention to upgrade rural telephony infrastructure to 4G, the NPP cautioned that the upgrade should not come at the expense of connecting already-built sites and restoring those that have gone offline.

The party is therefore demanding that the Ministry and the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) publish a deployment schedule for the remaining sites, the operational status of the satellite hub, and a detailed plan for the proposed 4G upgrade including cost, financing and implementation timeline.