Illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey, is responsible for about 25 per cent of fibre cuts recorded across Ghana, Communications, Digital Technology and Innovations Minister Sam Nartey George has disclosed.
The Minister said the frequent damage to fibre infrastructure was contributing significantly to disruptions in telecommunications services across the country.
Speaking at the Government Accountability Series on Monday, September 7, Mr George said Ghana had recorded a sharp rise in fibre cuts in recent years.
He disclosed that about 3,900 fibre cuts were recorded in 2021, increasing to 10,034 in 2022. The country subsequently recorded more than 6,000 cuts in 2023 and over 5,000 in 2024.
According to him, the situation worsened in 2025, when approximately 8,000 fibre cuts were recorded.
He warned that if the current trend continues, Ghana could record close to 9,000 fibre cuts by the end of 2026.
“Already, as at the end of June this year, we had recorded almost 4,300 fibre cuts,” he said.
Mr George identified road construction under the government’s Big Push programme as the biggest source of fibre damage, accounting for about 49 per cent of all fibre cuts.
He explained that the rapid expansion of road projects had increased the risk of underground fibre cables being damaged during excavation.
“The biggest source of fibre cuts is from the Big Push project. Because the Ministry of Roads is carrying out an aggressive project to construct roads across the country, you see that a lot more of our fibre is being cut,” he said.
He cited the Winneba-Mankessim road as an example, where a single fibre cut resulted in a 17-hour service outage, severely affecting data services from Winneba and Mankessim through to the Cape Coast area.
The Minister, however, said illegal mining remained a major concern because galamsey operators often excavate without regard for underground telecommunications infrastructure.
“Twenty-five per cent of that is galamsey. The telecom industry is one of the worst hit by the activities of galamsey operations because they just go in, dig and they cut,” he said.
Mr George noted that road contractors sometimes report fibre damage after accidentally cutting cables, but illegal miners often provide no such notification.
“Even with the road contractors, you are lucky they may report it to you. Galamsey operators won’t report anything to you,” he added.
He said the repeated fibre cuts were creating serious challenges for network operators and users, particularly in areas where sufficient network infrastructure and capacity were already available.
According to him, some complaints about poor network quality were not necessarily due to inadequate infrastructure, but were instead caused by damaged fibre links.
“So people complain the network is bad here. It is not because the network is poor but because the fibre has been cut,” he said.
Mr George stressed that fibre cuts would remain a major challenge for the telecommunications sector unless stronger measures were taken to protect critical telecommunications infrastructure during road construction and illegal mining activities.
