The New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Policy Committee on Communications and Digitalization has challenged Communications Minister Sam George’s characterization of the previous administration’s record on rural telephony.

The Committee is demanding a full status report on the Ghana Rural Telephony and Digital Inclusion Project, including the number of sites constructed, connected, and operational.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, September 8, 2026, and signed by its Chairman, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the Committee said the record did not support claims of neglect.

The statement follows remarks made by Mr George at the Government Accountability Series press conference at Jubilee House on Monday, September 7, and during an inspection of rural telephony project sites in the Eastern Region on Friday, September 4.

The Committee said the project was launched in 2020, rather than 2022, under the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC).

It said the project was financed through a €155 million facility from the China EXIM Bank and implemented in partnership with Huawei and the China National Technical Import and Export Corporation.

According to the Committee, the approved design targeted 2,016 sites to serve between three and four million people in unserved and underserved communities.

The first site was commissioned in November 2020.

The Committee also referred to an earlier phase of the project, under which 430 rural sites were built and activated between 2017 and 2018 in collaboration with private-sector partners.

That phase, it said, connected approximately 700,000 previously unserved and underserved citizens.

“The Akufo-Addo and Bawumia administration therefore expanded rural telephony coverage from a low base in 2016 to an infrastructure footprint of 1,961 constructed sites by the time of the handover of government in January 2025, together with equipment in stock for the deployment of a further 400 sites,” the statement said.

“That is the baseline this administration inherited.”

Satellite hub

The Committee also rejected suggestions that sites deployed in 2024 were located in areas that could not technically be connected.

It said a satellite hub at the Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT had been upgraded, tested and prepared to provide backhaul connectivity for 46 sites in hard-to-reach communities.

The hub, it added, was procured under a valid contract and had capacity to support additional sites.

“The 46 communities concerned are not unreachable. They are unconnected because the contracted hub service has not been taken up and paid for,” the Committee said.

It described the situation as a commercial and administrative decision rather than a technical limitation.

Concerns over deployment

The Committee expressed concern about the pace of deployment since the change of government in January 2025.

“Per the information available to this Committee, no new rural telephony site was constructed in 2025, even though equipment for approximately 400 sites were handed over,” it said.

It added that the current rate of deployment suggested the remaining sites would not be completed this year.

The Committee further claimed that a higher percentage of constructed and activated sites were now non-operational than at the time of the handover.

“If any of these positions is inaccurate, the Ministry is in the best position to correct the record with data, and we invite it to do so,” the statement said.

4G upgrade

The Committee said it supported the proposed upgrade of rural telephony sites to a minimum of 4G.

It noted that the systems and equipment deployed under the previous administration were designed to be upgradeable to 4G.

However, it urged the Ministry to prioritise connecting sites that had already been built and paid for, deploying equipment already in stock and restoring services that had lapsed.

“Our concern is one of sequencing. A community that has no service at all gains nothing from a decision about whether it should eventually receive 3G or 4G,” the Committee said.

“An upgrade programme that runs ahead of completion of the existing programme risks leaving the citizens with the weakest coverage waiting longest.”

Demands for information

The NPP Committee is asking the Ministry and GIFEC to publish, within 30 days:

• A regional and district-level breakdown of sites constructed, connected, operational and built but not in service.
• A deployment schedule for equipment handed over for approximately 400 additional sites, including their locations and completion dates.
• The contractual and operational status of the satellite hub at the Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT.
• A decision on when the 46 sites designed to use the hub will be connected.
• The sequencing, cost and financing plan for the proposed 4G upgrade.
• Confirmation that the upgrade will not delay the completion of outstanding sites.
• A briefing to Parliament’s Select Committee on Communications.

The Committee said it was prepared to provide its technical and handover documents to the Ministry and the Parliamentary Select Committee upon request.

“Our interest is a working rural network, and we will engage constructively with any credible plan to deliver one,” it said.

“Ghanaians living in the communities concerned are entitled to service, and to a clear account of when they will receive it.”

Communications Minister Sam George has not yet responded to the statement.