The Minister for Communication, Digital Technology, and Innovations, Samuel Nartey George, has sent a strong warning to global technology giants over the systematic exploitation of African digital resources, describing the phenomenon as a dangerous wave of "new colonisation" sweeping across the continent.

In an interview with Adom News after addressing lawmakers, diplomats, and policy experts at the 4th African Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Family Sovereignty and Values, held within the precincts of Parliament, the Ningo-Prampram legislator asserted that Africa must urgently wake up, close ranks, and seize absolute ownership and regulatory control over its sovereign data assets before it is completely subjugated by external corporate interests.

Drawing historical parallels between transatlantic slavery, territorial imperialism, and modern digital exploitation, the minister noted that the contemporary actions of multinational tech firms mirror the exact strategies used to subjugate the continent centuries ago.

He cautioned that structural fragmentation within African regulatory frameworks has left the continent vulnerable to foreign data harvesting syndicates.

Exposing the strategic playbook of exploitation to the pan-African delegation, Mr Sam George argued:

“I think that it's simply because divided people are conquered people. The story of colonisation followed the same script. Communities set against themselves, aiding all kinds of barbaric action, and Ghana is leading the reparations movement. But even as we talk about reparations for slavery, we must be careful that a new colonisation and trade of digital assets from Africa do not begin to arise," he warned.

The minister directly accused global tech firms of extracting massive volumes of citizen data without legitimate, informed consent or structural economic compensation to host nations.

Refusing to couch the state's grievances in soft diplomatic language, the Communications Minister stated that the unauthorised syphoning of commercial, behavioural, and biometric data from African users amounts to outright theft.

He called for an immediate, unified continental policy framework to block unauthorised cross-border data transfers and compel global tech syndicates to store and process African data within local jurisdictions under indigenous terms.

“And that's why I think that it's important that as an African continent we take a defined, definite position to say that the stealing, there's no nice diplomatic way of putting it, the stealing of African data must stop. African data has been stolen by big tech without recourse to African governments,” the minister fired back.

The ministerial warning comes at a critical time when Ghana is actively positioning itself as a major digital hub in the West African sub-region, backed by aggressive investments in state-owned data centres and data protection compliance.

Mr Sam George reminded the inter-parliamentary assembly that true sovereignty in the 21st century cannot be achieved if African nations remain passive consumers and digital dependencies of foreign software empires.

Concluding his remarks with a passionate call to action, the minister urged African governments, parliaments, and regional blocs to rapidly build a defensive coalition to protect the continent's digital borders and secure its collective future.

“And we need to wake up to that and begin to say that we can only use our data on our own basis. We must own our data. And I expect that we will come together to fight these forces that are looking to destroy us,” Sam George stated emphatically.