BY Daniel Bampoe
A fresh political confrontation has erupted over the rural telecommunications infrastructure, with the New Patriotic Party (NPP) challenging the government’s account of the country’s rural telephony programme and demanding a detailed explanation of what has happened to hundreds of sites and equipment inherited in January 2025.
The latest dispute follows comments by the Minister for Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations during a Government Accountability Series press conference at Jubilee House on September 7, 2026, as well as remarks he made during an inspection of Rural Telephony Project sites in the Eastern Region on September 4.
In a strongly worded response dated September 8, the NPP Policy Committee on Communications and Digitalization said it welcomed measures that could reduce the cost of data and fixed broadband services and acknowledged the government’s attention to rural connectivity.
However, the party took particular exception to what it described as the Minister’s characterization of the previous decade, arguing that the historical record of rural telephony does not support an impression of neglect.
The disagreement has therefore shifted beyond the question of who is currently expanding connectivity. At the heart of the controversy is a much bigger question: What exactly did the current government inherit, how much of it is operational, and why do some communities allegedly remain without service?
A project whose history predates the current dispute
According to the NPP statement, the Ghana Rural Telephony and Digital Inclusion Project was launched in 2020, rather than 2022 as the party says has been suggested in public discussions.
The project was established under the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) and financed through a €155 million facility from China EXIM Bank. Huawei and the China National Technical Import and Export Corporation were involved in implementation.
Its approved design targeted 2,016 sites intended to provide telecommunications services to between three and four million people living in unserved and underserved communities.
The NPP says the first site under the project was commissioned in November 2020 and that these details are contained in Ministry handover documentation.
But the party insists that the 2020 programme was itself not the beginning of Ghana’s rural connectivity efforts.
It points to an earlier phase in which 430 rural sites were constructed and activated between 2017 and 2018 through collaboration with the private sector. According to the statement, those sites connected approximately 700,000 people who had previously lacked adequate telecommunications services.
The NPP consequently argues that the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia administration expanded the rural telephony infrastructure from the relatively low coverage base that existed in 2016 to a footprint of 1,961 constructed sites by the time the government changed hands in January 2025.
It further claims that equipment for an additional 400 sites was also in stock and handed over to the incoming administration.
That claim has become central to the political argument because it establishes the baseline against which the NPP wants the current government’s performance to be measured.
The 46 communities at the centre of another dispute
One of the most contentious issues concerns 46 communities that, according to the NPP, were designed to receive connectivity through a satellite backhaul arrangement.
The party rejects suggestions that those locations cannot technically be connected.
Its statement says a satellite hub located at the Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT was upgraded, tested and prepared specifically to provide backhaul connectivity to the 46 difficult-to-reach sites.
According to the NPP, the hub was procured under a properly executed contract and has capacity to serve additional locations.
The party’s argument is therefore that the 46 communities are not technically unreachable. Rather, it claims they remain unconnected because the contracted hub service has not been taken up and paid for.
That distinction, the NPP argues, is significant because describing the communities as technically impossible to connect could obscure what it considers to be a commercial or administrative issue.
The issue raises an obvious question for the government: If the infrastructure needed to connect the communities already exists, why have the services not been activated?
The NPP says the Ministry should provide the answer through documentation rather than competing political statements.
The 400-site question
Perhaps the most politically sensitive allegation in the statement concerns the approximately 400 additional rural telephony sites for which equipment was reportedly handed over in January 2025.
The NPP claims that no new rural telephony site was constructed in 2025 despite the equipment being available.
It further says the current pace of deployment indicates that the remaining 400 sites will not all be completed during 2026.
The party also makes another serious claim: that a greater proportion of the sites that had already been constructed and activated are now non-operational than was the case when the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia administration handed over power.
Importantly, the NPP itself acknowledges that these positions should be corrected if inaccurate and places the responsibility for providing the relevant data on the Ministry, which it says is best placed to establish the current situation.
This turns the controversy into a question that can potentially be settled with numbers.
How many sites were operational at the January 2025 handover?
How many are operational today?
How many of the 400 sites have been constructed?
Where are they located?
How much has been spent on their deployment?
And when will the remaining sites become operational?
NPP backs 4G—but says the order matters
Despite its criticism, the opposition says it does not oppose the government’s ambition to upgrade rural telephony sites to at least 4G.
The party describes the objective as legitimate and, over time, necessary.
But it argues that the government should first concentrate on communities that currently have no service before prioritising technological upgrades.
According to the NPP, the rural telephony infrastructure deployed under the previous administration was designed with 4G upgrades in mind, meaning the systems and equipment were capable of being upgraded during a later phase.
The party’s objection is therefore not to 4G itself but to what it calls the sequencing of priorities.
Its argument is straightforward: upgrading an existing service is of little immediate benefit to a community that does not have any service at all.
The NPP wants the government to first connect already-built sites, deploy equipment that was handed over and restore service to locations where connectivity has reportedly deteriorated.
It warns that pursuing a new upgrade programme before completing the existing rollout could result in communities with the weakest coverage waiting even longer.
From political credit to public accountability
The opposition has also attempted to frame the dispute as something larger than a battle over which administration should receive credit.
The NPP says rural telecommunications infrastructure should be regarded as national infrastructure that survives changes in government.
That position is particularly significant given the history of the programme, which spans different phases and administrations.
The party says its concerns are being raised on behalf of rural communities rather than as an attempt to claim exclusive ownership of the project.
Yet the political stakes remain high because telecommunications access has become an increasingly important component of economic participation, education, digital services and communication.
For residents in areas without reliable mobile connectivity, the distinction between a project that exists on paper and a network that actually works is substantial.
NPP gives government 30 days
Rather than limiting its response to criticism, the NPP has issued a specific demand for information.
It is calling on the Ministry and GIFEC to publish a comprehensive status report within 30 days.
The report, according to the opposition, should provide a regional and district-by-district breakdown showing the number of sites constructed, connected, currently operational and built but not yet in service.
The party is also demanding the deployment schedule for the equipment handed over for approximately 400 additional sites.
That schedule, it says, should identify the locations of the sites and their completion or planned completion dates.
The NPP further wants the government to disclose the current contractual and operational status of the satellite hub at the Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT and provide a clear decision on whether the 46 sites intended to depend on the hub will ultimately be connected—and when.
The proposed 4G upgrade is also being subjected to demands for greater transparency.
The opposition wants the government to disclose the sequencing, cost and financing arrangements for the upgrade and explain how it will interact with the completion of outstanding rural telephony sites.
It specifically wants confirmation that the 4G programme will not delay the deployment of the unfinished sites.
Parliament could become the battleground
The NPP’s final demand could move the controversy from political press conferences to Parliament.
The party is calling for a briefing to the Parliamentary Select Committee on Communications covering the status of the sites, the remaining equipment, the satellite hub and the proposed 4G upgrade.
Its argument is that the matter should ultimately be settled through evidence before Parliament rather than through competing claims in the media.
That proposal could provide a pathway for independently examining the competing narratives surrounding the rural telephony programme.
The NPP says it is prepared to make its technical and handover documentation available to the Ministry and the Parliamentary Select Committee if requested.
