23 December 2024
Ghana is facing a surge in fibre optic cable cuts, which is seriously affecting the stability and quality of its national network.
According to the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications (GCT) and the Electronic Money Issuers Chamber (EMIS), between January and November 2024, some 10,233 cuts were reported, resulting in repair costs of over $17.4 million.
Kenneth Ashigbey, GCT's managing director, reports that these incidents are mainly caused by road construction, real estate projects, vandalism, theft and natural disasters: "these frequent outages are jeopardizing the national fibre optic backbone and compromising efforts to improve existing services.”
The outages have a significant economic impact, with approximately 202.1 million cedis invested since January 2023 to repair damaged infrastructure. This not only hinders network expansion but also threatens Ghana’s international competitiveness.
As such, GCT has partnered with the Ministry of Roads and Highways, road agencies and construction companies to mitigate the damage. It has also launched the ‘Save Our Fibre’ campaign to raise awareness about the impacts of the outages.
To address these challenges, the Chamber advocates for policies to reduce repeated excavations and strengthen infrastructure protection. It also proposes the establishment of a specialized court to prosecute those responsible for such acts and to engage in close collaboration between all stakeholders. The aim is to ensure a resilient network that can support Ghana’s digital ambitions while meeting the growing connectivity needs of its citizens.
