Samuel Nartey George, Minister of Communications, Digital Technology, and Innovations, says Ghana’s proposed overhaul of technology regulation will focus primarily on companies providing services to government institutions and critical national infrastructure, as stakeholders seek to calm concerns from startups and digital entrepreneurs over the controversial draft National Information Technology Agency legislation (NITA).
Speaking during a stakeholder engagement on proposed reforms to the NITA bill, the minister said the government has not finalized the bill and stressed that several provisions circulating publicly were drawn from an early “zero draft” that has already undergone multiple revisions following consultations with industry players.
“We do not have something that has been implemented,” George said. “The NITA bill is not even one of the 10 legislative proposals currently being sent to Cabinet.”
The remarks come after backlash from Ghana’s technology ecosystem over draft provisions that appeared to require broad licensing of ICT professionals and technology firms, sparking fears of higher compliance costs and tighter regulatory controls that could freeze investors out of Ghana’s digital markets.
George said the ministry had intentionally departed from Ghana’s traditional legislative process by publishing draft proposals before Cabinet approval in order to collect public input earlier.
“This time I’ve decided to flip the script,” he said, adding that the ministry had already held four stakeholder engagements and received submissions from local and international technology firms, including the American Chamber of Commerce and the U.S. Embassy.
According to George, the current policy direction limits certification requirements mainly to firms offering services to ministries, departments, and agencies, as well as operators working with designated critical information infrastructure, such as banks and sensitive digital systems.
“If you offer a service to government, you must be certified,” he said. “You offer a service to critical information infrastructure; you also must be certified.”
The minister rejected claims circulating online that freelance developers, hobbyists, or small repair shops would automatically require costly licenses to operate.
Using fee schedules published on NITA’s website, George argued that the registration costs being discussed were tied to firms securing government contracts worth hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars.
He cited examples including database infrastructure providers and enterprise software vendors paying between GH₵12,000 and GH₵30,000 in registration and renewal fees to supply digital systems to government agencies.
“As industry players, you know that there is no service provider today in Ghana that is offering a productivity software to any government agency that is charging them anything less than $20,000,” he said.
George also announced plans to separate NITA’s regulatory role from its commercial infrastructure operations, describing the agency’s current structure as an “abnormality” that has persisted for nearly two decades.
Under the proposed reforms, NITA would become a dedicated regulator, while government-owned digital infrastructure assets, including fiber networks, LTE base stations, and national data centers, would be transferred into a separate state-owned company supervised by the ministry.
“How do you have a regulator and an operator in one entity?” George said. “Currently, the referee is wearing the jersey.”
The restructuring would mirror arrangements in Ghana’s postal and telecommunications sectors, where regulators operate independently from state-owned service providers, he said.
The proposed legislative overhaul forms part of a broader review of 15 laws under the ministry, which is seeking to modernize regulation around cybersecurity, digital infrastructure, and technology services amid rapid expansion of Ghana’s digital economy.
