NPP fires back at Sam George over rural telephony — Demands full project status report within 30 days

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has launched a strong rebuttal to Communications Minister Sam George’s account of Ghana’s rural telephony programme, insisting that the figures do not support any suggestion that the previous administration neglected underserved communities.

The NPP Policy Committee on Communications and Digitalisation, chaired by former Communications Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, is now demanding a comprehensive status report from the Ministry and the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) on every major component of the project.

NPP challenges Sam George’s account

The response follows comments made by Sam George during a Government Accountability Series press conference on September 7, 2026, as well as his inspection of rural telephony project sites in the Eastern Region on September 4.

The NPP says the Ghana Rural Telephony and Digital Inclusion Project was launched in 2020, not 2022 as it says has been suggested.

According to the party, the project was financed through a €155 million China EXIM Bank facility, with an original target of 2,016 sites intended to provide connectivity to between three and four million people living in underserved and unserved communities.

‘1,961 sites were already constructed’

The NPP is putting its strongest defence behind the figures it says were recorded before the change of government.

The party says an earlier phase of the rural telephony programme resulted in 430 sites being constructed and activated between 2017 and 2018, connecting approximately 700,000 previously unserved and underserved citizens.

It further claims that by the time the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia administration handed over power in January 2025, the rural telephony programme had expanded to 1,961 constructed sites, with equipment available for another 400 sites.

The NPP therefore insists that the record does not support a description of neglect.

Satellite hub controversy erupts

The party has also rejected claims surrounding the connectivity of 46 hard-to-reach communities.

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

According to the NPP, the communities are not technically unreachable.

Instead, it argues that they remain unconnected because the contracted hub service has not been taken up and paid for, describing the issue as a commercial and administrative matter rather than a technical limitation.

NPP questions pace of deployment

The opposition party is now turning the spotlight onto the period since January 2025.

It claims that, based on information available to its committee, no new rural telephony site was constructed in 2025, despite equipment for approximately 400 additional sites being handed over.

The NPP also alleges that a higher proportion of constructed and activated sites are currently non-operational compared with the situation at the time of the January 2025 handover.

The party, however, says the Ministry is in the best position to correct those figures if they are inaccurate — by providing the data.

NPP supports 4G upgrade — but says ‘connect first’

Interestingly, the NPP says it supports the proposed upgrade of rural telephony sites to a minimum of 4G.

It maintains that the equipment installed under the previous administration was designed to be upgradeable.

However, the party wants government to first prioritise communities that already have infrastructure but remain without service.

Its argument is simple: there is little benefit in debating whether an unconnected community should receive 3G or 4G when the community has no service at all.

The party is therefore warning that an upgrade programme should not delay completion of outstanding sites.

NPP gives government 30-day deadline

The NPP Policy Committee is demanding that the Ministry of Communications and GIFEC publish a comprehensive project status report within 30 days.

Among other things, it wants:

• A regional and district breakdown of constructed, connected and operational sites.
• Details of sites built but currently not in service.
• A deployment schedule for equipment earmarked for approximately 400 additional sites.
• The contractual and operational status of the satellite hub.
• A decision on when the 46 affected communities will be connected.
• The cost, financing and sequencing of the proposed 4G upgrade.
• Confirmation that the upgrade will not delay completion of outstanding sites.
• A briefing for Parliament’s Select Committee on Communications.

‘Our interest is a working rural network’

Despite the increasingly political nature of the dispute, the NPP says its main concern is not simply defending the previous administration.

The committee says its interest is to see working rural telecommunications networks serving communities that have historically been left without reliable connectivity.

It has also offered to provide its technical and handover documents to the Ministry and Parliament’s Communications Committee if requested.

Sam George now under pressure to produce the numbers

The latest confrontation has shifted the debate from political claims to hard project data.

The NPP is effectively challenging the Communications Minister to publish the numbers and show exactly how many rural telephony sites have been constructed, connected and are currently operational.

Until then, the two sides remain sharply divided over the state of the programme.

The political battle may have started with claims over the past, but the NPP now wants the argument settled with one thing: the full numbers.