The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has given the government 30 days to publish a comprehensive status report on the Ghana Rural Telephony and Digital Inclusion Project.
The party says the government must account for the progress of the project, including the number of sites constructed, connected and currently operational, as well as those that have been completed but remain without service.
The demand follows comments by the Minister for Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations about the rural telephony project and the government’s efforts to improve connectivity across the country.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, September 8, and signed by the Chairman of the NPP’s Policy Co-ordination Committee, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the party disputed what it described as an inaccurate characterization of the project’s history and performance.
The party insists that the Ghana Rural Telephony and Digital Inclusion Project was launched in 2020, not 2022, under the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications.
It says the project was financed through a €155 million facility from the China EXIM Bank, with an approved target of 2,016 sites intended to provide connectivity to between three and four million people in underserved and unserved communities.
According to the NPP, the previous H.E Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo-Bawumia administration had constructed 1,961 sites by the time it handed over power in January 2025, with equipment also available for the deployment of about 400 additional sites.
The party is now demanding clarity on what it says has happened to the project since the change of government.
It claims that no new rural telephony site was constructed in 2025, despite equipment for approximately 400 sites being handed over.
The NPP further alleges that the pace of deployment of the remaining sites suggests they will not all be completed this year and that more of the previously constructed and activated sites are now non-operational than at the time of the handover.
The party has challenged the government to correct these claims if they are inaccurate by providing the relevant data.
The NPP is also demanding answers about 46 communities which were designed to receive connectivity through a satellite hub at the Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT.
It says the hub was upgraded and prepared to provide backhaul services to the 46 hard-to-reach communities and argues that their lack of connectivity is not due to a technical limitation, but because the contracted hub service has not been taken up and paid for.
While the NPP says it supports the government’s plan to upgrade rural telephony sites to at least 4G, it wants the government to first connect sites that have already been constructed and paid for, deploy equipment already in stock and restore services that have lapsed.
The party argues that prioritising a 4G upgrade before completing the existing programme could leave communities with the weakest coverage waiting even longer for connectivity.
As part of its 30-day demand, the NPP wants the Ministry and the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications to publish a detailed regional and district-level breakdown of the project.
It also wants the deployment schedule and locations of the approximately 400 outstanding sites, their planned completion dates, and the current contractual and operational status of the satellite hub.
The party is further demanding details of the sequencing, cost and financing of the proposed 4G upgrade and how it will be implemented without delaying the completion of outstanding sites.
The NPP has also called for a briefing to Parliament’s Select Committee on Communications, arguing that the status of the project should be established through official evidence rather than competing political claims.
The party says its ultimate concern is not which administration receives credit for the project, but ensuring that rural communities have access to reliable telecommunications services and a clear timeline for when unconnected communities will be served.
Source: Purefmonlinegh.com || Evans Osei-Bonsu || 2026
