The Minister of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations, Sam Nartey George, has blamed road construction under the government’s Big Push programme for nearly half of all fibre cuts recorded in Ghana this year.

He said road construction accounted for about 49 per cent of the 8,578 fibre cuts recorded so far in 2026, making it the single largest source of damage to the country’s telecommunications infrastructure.

Speaking at the Government Accountability Series on Monday, September 7, 2026, Sam George said the incidents had disrupted telecommunications services and imposed significant financial costs on network operators.

According to him, the cost of repairing the damaged fibre infrastructure had exceeded US$20 million this year.

He said the money spent on repairs could otherwise have been invested in expanding telecommunications infrastructure and improving network coverage across the country.

“That’s money that without the fibre cut we could have used to build new sites. The biggest source of fibre cuts is from the Big Push project because the Ministry of Roads is carrying out an aggressive project to construct roads across the country,” he stated.

Sam George said the persistent damage to fibre infrastructure had become a major challenge to the expansion of telecommunications services, as operators were forced to divert resources from infrastructure development to repair works.

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He noted that Ghana recorded about 3,900 fibre cuts in 2021, more than 10,000 in 2022, over 6,000 in 2023 and more than 5,600 in 2024.

The number increased to about 8,000 in 2025, while the country had already recorded 8,578 incidents as of September 2026.

Sam George warned that Ghana could record close to 9,000 fibre-cut incidents by the end of the year if the current trend continued.

Despite the challenge, George said the government remained committed to expanding telecommunications infrastructure and improving access to reliable connectivity.

He disclosed that the government had revised its target for new telecommunications sites from 50 in 2025 to 800 in 2026.

Sam George stressed that reducing damage to fibre infrastructure would be critical to ensuring that funds earmarked for telecommunications expansion were not continually diverted to costly repairs.

He called for greater coordination between road construction projects and telecommunications operators to minimise damage to critical fibre infrastructure during construction works.

MRA/BAI

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