When multiple submarine cables failed simultaneously off the West African coast in March 2024, the event exposed a hard truth: having cables on paper does not mean having resilience in practice. Ghana took that lesson to Doha this week.
At the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference 2026 (ITU PP-26), Ghana's Minister for Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations, Samuel Nartey George, used a High Level Thematic Discussion organised by the ITU to issue a direct call for increased investment, stronger infrastructure protection, and coordinated global action on telecommunications resilience.
"Redundancy on paper is not resilience in practice," the Minister told delegates, referencing the March 2024 cable failures that disrupted internet services, hit businesses, and throttled connectivity across the West African region — even in countries like Ghana that had multiple submarine cable systems already landing on their shores.
"In a digital world, connectivity is not a convenience, it is a lifeline." — Samuel Nartey George, Minister for Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations, Ghana
The warning carries weight. Infrastructure that collapses during an emergency does not just inconvenience users — the Minister framed it bluntly as a liability rather than an asset.
Ghana's Two-Track Domestic Response
Minister George did not arrive in Doha with just concerns. He outlined two concrete domestic policy moves Ghana is pursuing in response to the 2024 disruptions.
The first is the Dig Once Policy, which is currently before Cabinet. The policy would force telecommunications operators, road contractors, utility providers, and local authorities to coordinate through shared infrastructure mapping and joint excavation — a move designed to significantly cut down on the fibre damage that often happens when contractors dig blindly and slice through cables.
The second is a National Emergency Telecommunications Plan, which Ghana is developing to establish clear response protocols when network failures hit. The plan would prioritise restoring connectivity to critical services — hospitals, banks, and emergency services — first, and would include satellite backup provisions where necessary. The intersection of AI and digital twin technology also featured in the Minister's remarks as tools that can strengthen network reliability going forward.
A Push for Global Coordination
Beyond Ghana's domestic agenda, the Minister pressed for structural changes at the international level. He called for regulations that genuinely promote network diversity and infrastructure sharing — not just on paper — alongside faster repair timelines. Renewable energy, he noted, also has a role to play in keeping networks alive when power grids go down.
Cross-border cooperation was a recurring theme. George urged nations to share risk information, build regional repair arrangements, and increase financing to diversify international connectivity routes — so that a single failure point does not cascade across multiple countries again.
Ghana also put a formal proposal on the table: that the ITU adopt a Programme of Action on Resilience with clear responsibilities, defined timelines, and measurable indicators to track how well telecommunications networks can withstand and recover from disruptions. It is the kind of accountability framework that the continent's digital security and infrastructure conversations have long lacked.
Why Doha, Why Now
The ITU Plenipotentiary Conference, held every four years, is where member states shape the direction of global telecommunications policy. With the March 2024 cable crisis still fresh and Africa's digital economies growing rapidly, Ghana's intervention at PP-26 reflects a broader regional urgency to stop treating connectivity resilience as a secondary concern.
The message from Accra to Doha was clear: build it to last, or do not call it infrastructure at all.