As Ghana records strong macroeconomic gains in 2025, a new policy brief from the IMANI Centre for Policy and Education warns that political interference in market pricing threatens to unravel hard-won economic progress.
The think tank applauds government efforts that have led to improved indicators, including 5.3% real GDP growth in Q1, a fall in inflation to 13.7% by June, a sharp 42.6% appreciation of the cedi against the US dollar, and a drop in the debt-to-GDP ratio from 61.8% to 43.8%.
However, IMANI cautions that recent actions by government officials, particularly the Minister for Communication, Samuel Nartey George, signal a troubling shift toward price control mandates that undermine market confidence.
The brief criticizes the Minister’s public interventions demanding that private firms, including telecom operators and pay-TV provider Multichoice Ghana, slash prices without transparent cost assessments or regulatory oversight.
“In May 2025, Minister Sam George pressured mobile network operators to increase data volumes for the same prices, that was well received by the public,” the brief noted.
“However, applying the same tactics to Multichoice Ghana’s DStv service is fundamentally flawed, as broadcasting services operate under different cost structures driven by foreign-denominated content licensing and limited domestic competition.”
Multichoice Ghana, which offers six DStv packages ranging from the basic “Padi” to the premium tier with Showmax included, has more than doubled the price of its Access package between 2021 and 2025, from GHS45 to GHS99.
While this 120% increase may seem excessive, IMANI argues that the costs are tied to currency volatility and rising global licensing fees, and that the lack of competition not arbitrary price hikes is the real issue.
The think tank warns that ministerial ultimatums erode investor confidence and could derail Ghana’s progress toward its end-year targets, which include achieving 4.8% non-oil GDP growth, reducing inflation to 11.9%, and recording a primary balance surplus of 1.5% of GDP.
Instead of state-led price cuts, IMANI proposes a comprehensive regulatory reform agenda that strengthens Ghana’s market institutions including; passing the long-delayed Competition Law, which has been dormant in Parliament for nearly two decades, empower a truly independent Competition Authority to investigate monopolistic practices and enforce fair pricing, mandate transparency by requiring operators like Multichoice to publish detailed, audited breakdowns of costs, content acquisition, exchange rate hedging, and local operations and convene multi-stakeholder market reviews involving regulators, operators, consumer groups, and content providers to foster trust and informed decision-making.
It added that boosting consumer protection capacity, enabling the Consumer Protection Agency to resolve pay-TV complaints swiftly and mediate billing disputes.
“Rather than imposing price ceilings, the Ministry of Communication should facilitate structured dialogue and cost transparency. Cross-country comparisons, such as the 61% and 64% lower prices for equivalent DStv packages in South Africa and Nigeria should inform policy, not fuel populist demands,” the brief urges.
IMANI also points out that with government institutions no longer covering executives’ DStv subscriptions, that removes thousands of automatic accounts from Multichoice’s balance sheet the company faces a new commercial reality.
However, this shift should not be exploited to justify coercive regulation.
With Ghana’s macroeconomic foundation strengthening, IMANI’s analysis provides a timely reminder that prosperity is best safeguarded not by command-and-control mandates, but through transparent markets, competition, and regulatory accountability.
