Galamsey, power outages worsening poor telecom network quality

Communications, Digital Technology and Innovations Minister Samuel Nartey George has linked persistent challenges with telecommunications network quality in Ghana to the activities of illegal miners and frequent disruptions in the national power supply.

Speaking at the Government Accountability Series in Accra on Monday, September 7, 2026, the minister explained that fibre-optic cable cuts remain a major problem for the sector.

Telecel completes 1,890 new cell sites – Sam George

He identified road construction as the largest source, followed by galamsey and private development work.

"Operators, because they just go in, they dig, they cut, and even with the road contractors, you are lucky because they may report it to you. Galamsey operators, they won't report anything to you. So it's a real challenge that the sector is facing," he said.

"And then private developers and estate developers and people doing their own thing account for 26% of where we are. Now, power is another big issue that affects the quality of the network. When there is a national twitch and the power grid, it affects the telecom infrastructure because the telecom infrastructure runs on the back of the cell site," he added.

He further explained that cell sites depend primarily on the national grid, with batteries or generators serving as backups.

However, incidents such as the Akosombo fire, which knocked out close to 60 per cent of national capacity, and the Greater Accra floods, which submerged generators, have worsened the situation.

"The cell site is powered by the national grid and sometimes by batteries or a generator set. But the primary source of powering the site is the national grid. This year alone, the Akosombo fire incident that affected the national grid completely knocked out close to 60% of capacity in our country," Samuel George disclosed.

Road projects account for 49% of fibre cuts – Sam George

He continued: "The Greater Accra floods did massive damage because sometimes when the power grid goes off, the generators kick in. But now you had generators that were also submerged in water and could not even kick in. So then you had a situation where the national grid was off because there were places where the national grid was intentionally turned off during the flooding to prevent electrocution of people."

"...So it meant that those cell sites went off. The fallback would have been for the generators to kick in. The generators were also submerged in water. So it then meant that there was a deprivation of service. Now it means that even when the floodwaters recede, you have to invest in buying new generators to repower all of those sites," he noted.