I’ll never take policy decisions without engaging stakeholders – Sam George

The Minister for Communications, Digitalisation, and Innovation, Samuel Nartey George, revealed plans to tackle the escalating cost of data in Ghana.

According to him, he had an engagement with management from the relevant ministries yesterday to lay the groundwork for the formation of a committee that will assess and propose solutions to the issue.

Speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile on Saturday, February 8, Mr Sam George added “I have given them the running order.”

“Hopefully, in the next 14 days, we will be setting up a committee an inter-ministerial committee to look at the cost of data.”

He further expressed his strong belief that tangible progress could be made by the end of the year.

“It is my fervent belief that before the end of this year, we should see some movement in the data offerings,” Mr George added.

The proposed committee will explore two key approaches to address the issue in reducing the price of data or increasing the value offerings for consumers.

“There are two modules here, you can either have a reduction in price of data or an increase in value offerings. We are going to look to look at those modules,” he said.

The inter-ministerial committee, according to Mr George, will be a collaborative effort, bringing together representatives from multiple ministries and industry stakeholders.

“The committee is going to have representatives from the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Finance, and other key groups, including the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS), the Chamber of Telecommunications, and content producers,” he explained.