Hon Samuel Nartey George
Ningo-Prampram

Mr Speaker, pursuant to Article 179 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana and the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (PFMA), (Act 921). I respectfully present to this august House the Outlook for 2025 for the Ministry of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovation.

Mr Speaker, the Ministry, by an Executive Instrument of His Excellency the President, has been redesignated the Ministry of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations. The vision of the Ministry is to ensure that we have a digitally inclusive, data-driven ecosystem in the country. The Budget has outlined the great innovative ideas that the President wants for us to pursue this year. However, it is important that we state that we have inherited a Ministry that is deeply challenged. I did not even find bones to take the marrow out of. Just to give us a typical example, the National Communications Authority (NCA), which is one of our flagship agencies, was able to pay US$64.5 million the last time the NDC was in government for the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) Platform to be built. When I took over the Ministry, the complete bank balance of the NCA was US$1 million.

Mr Speaker, the National Information Technology Agency (NITA) had its bank balance of GH₵25.08.Meanwhile, the same Agency has a debt sitting on its book of GH₵813,486,505.89. I will repeat that again for the records. The debt at NITA is GH₵813,486,505.89. Meanwhile, the bank balance of NITA is GH₵ 25.08. This is what has been handed over to us.

Mr Speaker, the complete debt portfolio at the Ministry of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovation is in excess of GH₵6 billion. This House will remember that the previous Government we inherited from, told us that they had acquired AirtelTigo for US$1—[An Hon Member: Ei!]—At the right time, I would present to this House, the details of that transaction. But let it be on record that the previous Government claimed to have bought Airtel Tigo for US$1, but took it with a debt portfolio of US$220 million.

Mr Speaker, in fact, the last meeting I had before coming to Parliament was with the Ambassador of the United States of America (USA). I am sure those of us who have followed the news have seen a USA Senator say that, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) should not disburse to Ghana the next tranche because we owe American Tower Corporation (ATC) a GH₵220 million debt. Yet, the previous Government told us they bought it for US$1.

Mr Speaker, however, we have a President who is visionary and has given us the way forward. We would build a digitally resilient economy. The growth of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in our country will be matched under this Administration, with the right regulatory and policy framework. As we speak, the legislation in the Ministry of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovation should not be in the Ministry, but in a museum. The reason being that, it is outdated, not fit for purpose, and it is past its prime.

Mr Speaker, to put this in perspective, the Ghana Telecoms Act was passed in 2003; that is 22 years old in an IT sector. The Data Protection Act, 2012 (Act 843) was passed in 2012, 13 years old. The Electronic Communications Act was passed in 2008, 17 years old. The National Communications Authority Act, 2008 (Act 769), 17 years old. The Postal and Courier Services Regulatory Commission Act, 2003 (Act 649), 22 years old.

Mr Speaker, this is what we have inherited. On the back of this, we have a lack of adequate governance which poses challenges such as data security, privacy, economic inclusion, intellectual property rights and digital sovereignty. In line with this, I would come to this House with legislation to review and revamp all of these legislations, seven of them, before the next Meeting of Parliament comes to an end. I would want to seek the indulgence of the House to expedite action for us to pass this Bill. Mr Speaker, the Ministry intends to roll out our One Million Coders Project. The One Million Coders Project is an ambitious—

In fact, it is per capita, the most ambitious Project on the continent of Africa. Because the only other country that is planning to do anything like this is Nigeria, which is planning to train three million ICT inclined people, out of a population of 300 million. We are training one million out of a population of 33 million. This is the most ambitious plan.

Mr Speaker, in the last five weeks, we have laid out the roadmap, built a curriculum for it, and GH₵100 million has been allocated a seed fund in the 2025 fiscal year Budget for it. [Hear! Hear!] As part of rolling out that, we will be conducting training in all 264 districts in the country and also using our flagship Digital Youth Village at the University of Ghana, Legon. When it is completed, this Digital Youth Village will serve as a centre of excellence for learning, innovation, and creativity in the digital space. Once again, the visionary President John Dramani Mahama and the hardworking Minister for Finance have dedicated GH₵86 million for the completion of the Digital Youth Village.

It is important that we bring Ghana up to speed when it comes to cyber security. We are fully aware of the incidents that happened in the past week with the X Account of His Excellency the President. But our resilience and strength as an institution, helped us to recover that account within 24 hours, working with our international partners. However, Ghana must come to the place where we have the capacity to react even quicker. We would be strengthening our cyber security authority with support from the Ghana Digital Acceleration Project and we would establish three sectoral sets for education, health and transport respectively.

Mr Speaker, it is also important to understand that Ghana is going to a place where would be digitally inclusive and data-driven with the Smart Data Initiative. Our Smart Data Initiative looks to introduce the breaking down of data silos, to allow for us to have a data exchange hub, which will allow the Ministry of Finance to make data-driven analytic solutions and decisions instead of those driven by sentiments.

Mr Speaker, our focus as a Ministry is to create digital jobs and make Ghana the epicentre of the business process outsourcing and knowledge process outsourcing ecosystem. To do this, we are going to foster active Ghanaian participation in key sectors such as telecommunications, financial technology (Fintech) solutions, data governance, cyber security, and artificial intelligence, by creating capacity-building programmes, promoting local talent, and facilitating public-private collaborations. We would review the capital integrity requirements for non-deposittaking fintech firms, and promote the role of fintech in poverty reduction.

We will not limit ourselves to fintech, but we would explore innovation using our regulatory and innovation sandbox in areas such as agricultural technology (AgriTech), insurance technology (InsurTech), education technology (EdTech), and health technology (HealthTech). We would establish a robust and institutional framework to facilitate the effective regulation of Fintech, where we will oversee the US$50 million Fintech Development Fund. Another project of concern is the Rural Telephony Project and Members of this House have filed many Questions about quality of service in their communities and their constituencies. It is important that we complete the Project.
Between 2022 and 2025, Mr Speaker, 1,477 towers were completed with 1,010 under Phase 1A and 467 under Phase 1B. This year, the Ministry has made an allocation of GH₵147 million for us to complete the outstanding 539 rural telephony sites.

Mr Speaker, as a Government, we are committed to revamping the Ghana Post Company to make it an efficient postal delivery service. We will rehabilitate and digitise the operation of 200 of our post offices to enable them provide e-services to customers. The National Communications Authority (NCA), as a regulator, will continue its work in cleaning up the spectrum fibre and Mr Speaker, I will be coming to this House very soon to properly brief the House on the closure of radio stations, the reasons for the suspension of those licences, and the outstanding radio stations whose licences will be suspended for breaches of regulation. We will lay out the remedial measures that we will be taking to get the support of this House.

Mr Speaker, a thriving Information and Communication Technology (ICT) ecosystem is vital for our socio-economic and cultural development and we must, as a country, prepare ourselves for the fourth industrial revolution of artificial intelligence. With H. E. John Mahama at the helm of affairs and with my good self, leading the Ministry, Mr Speaker, you can rest assured that Ghana is in safe hands digitally.

I thank you, Mr Speaker.