Minister of Communications Samuel Nartey George revealed plans to establish an inter-ministerial committee to address the high cost of data in Ghana.
The committee to be set up within the next 14 days would have representation from the Ministries of Communication, Digital Technology & Innovation, Energy, Finance, NCA, PURC, Ghana Chamber of Telecommunication, NUGS, and Association of Content Creators amongst others.
“I’ve given them the running order,” Minister George stated. “Hopefully within the next 14 days we’ll be setting up a committee… to look at the cost of data,” Sam George told JoyNews.
The minister reiterated his dedication to lowering data costs and assured Ghanaians that they would begin to see tangible changes before the end of the year.
“At my vetting, I said that it is my fervent belief that before the end of this year, we should see some movements in the data offerings,” he noted.
He emphasized that his approach to policy-making would be based on collaboration and consultations with key stakeholders, including telecom operators and industry regulators.
In the coming days, a team to discuss and chart a road map that works for everyone involved would be outdoored. The focus would be to find common grounds that are representative of the needs of the citizens, industry and govt.
The team would have representation from the… pic.twitter.com/QFnP68RA6Z— Sam 'Dzata' George 🦁🇬🇭 (@samgeorgegh) February 9, 2025
Sam George explained that even before formally announcing the initiative, he had engaged telecom CEOs to discuss the feasibility and strategies for reducing data prices.
“Even before I sat at my vetting to announce this as policy, I had engaged all the telecom CEOs.
I’m going to be a minister who will engage industry. I won’t announce a policy without engaging the industry and getting their buy-in,” he stated.
The minister described his leadership approach as a reset for Ghana’s digital economy, aiming to foster greater cooperation between government agencies and telecom service providers.
“I told them, it’s a new dawn. It’s a reset. And so I engaged personally every single chief executive and the chamber as well to get their understanding of what I want to do and secure their buy-in before announcing it,” he added.