The Digital Divide: Why Some Parts of Ghana Still Struggle with Good Internet

Ghana likes to describe itself as a country moving quickly into the digital age. That claim is not without evidence. Mobile money has changed the way we send and receive cash. Government services are increasingly moving online. Young people are building businesses on social media, learning new skills on the internet and applying for jobs without entering an office. In Accra, Kumasi and other major cities, it is easy to look at these changes and conclude that Ghana is already well connected.

But travel beyond the areas where strong networks are taken for granted and a different Ghana appears. In many communities, internet access is slow, unstable or simply unavailable at the moment it is needed. A student may have a smartphone but struggle to download a lesson. A farmer may hear about digital markets but have to walk to a particular spot before a message can go through. A small business owner may accept mobile money but still lose customers because the network disappears during a transaction. These experiences show that the digital divide is not an abstract policy phrase. It is part of everyday life.

Ghana has made progress, and that should be acknowledged. DataReportal's Digital 2026 report estimated that about 26.3 million people in Ghana were using the internet by late 2025, representing roughly three quarters of the population. At the same time, the report estimated that close to nine million people were still offline. That is a large number of citizens to leave at the edge of a digital economy. It also reminds us that national averages can hide serious differences between regions, districts and communities.

The first reason for the gap is simple economics. Telecommunication companies invest where they expect enough customers to recover the cost of towers, fibre, power, maintenance and security. Dense urban areas naturally attract more investment because there are many paying users in a small space. A remote community with a smaller population may not offer the same commercial return. Yet the people who live there need connectivity just as much as people in the cities. If access to the internet is left entirely to commercial logic, some communities will always be last in line.

This is why public investment remains important. In January 2026, the Ministry of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations reported that 224 rural telephony sites had been completed through the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications, bringing voice and data services to more than 500 communities. That is welcome progress. It also tells us something important: the market alone has not solved the problem. Ghana still needs deliberate policies and targeted investment to reach places that private operators may consider difficult or less profitable.

Coverage, however, is only one part of the problem. A network signal on a map does not always mean a good internet experience on the ground. A community may technically be covered but still face weak signals, congestion, repeated service interruptions or very slow speeds. This is why success should not be measured only by the number of towers built. We should also ask whether people can actually make a clear call, complete a mobile money transaction, join an online class, upload a document or run a business without constantly searching for a better signal.

Affordability is another major barrier. For a worker with a stable salary, buying data may feel like a normal monthly expense. For a household choosing between food, transport, school needs and electricity, data can quickly become a luxury. The cost of a capable smartphone is also beyond the reach of some families. We therefore need to stop treating internet access as if the only question is whether a network exists. A service that people cannot afford to use regularly is not meaningful access.

Electricity also matters. Reliable connectivity depends on reliable power for towers, devices, routers, schools and community facilities. In places where electricity supply is weak or where households do not have dependable access, the internet becomes harder to use even when a mobile network is present. Digital policy cannot therefore be separated from energy policy, education policy and local development. A serious attempt to close the digital divide must connect these issues instead of treating them as separate projects.

The cost of this divide is much bigger than inconvenience. When students cannot connect, their educational opportunities shrink. When health workers cannot access digital systems, service delivery suffers. When farmers and traders cannot reach online markets, they lose information and customers. When young people in smaller towns cannot take online courses or compete for remote work, geography begins to decide who gets opportunity. That is not the kind of digital transformation Ghana should celebrate.

There is also a fairness question. Citizens in rural and underserved communities pay taxes, contribute to the economy and vote in national elections. They should not be expected to accept permanently weaker access to a service that is becoming essential for education, banking, business and public administration. As more government services move online, the state has an even greater responsibility to ensure that people are not excluded simply because of where they live.

What should be done? Ghana must continue expanding rural network infrastructure, but expansion should come with stronger standards for quality and reliability. Public funds used to support connectivity should be tied to clear performance targets that communities can verify. Regulators should publish simple information showing where service is weak and how operators are improving it. More investment in shared infrastructure can also reduce the cost of serving difficult areas, especially where several companies do not need to build separate facilities to reach the same small population.

Affordability must also become a central part of the discussion. Government, regulators and operators should work toward data packages that make sense for low income users, schools and small businesses. Public internet access points in libraries, schools and community centres can help, but they must be maintained and properly connected. Digital skills programmes should continue as well, because connection without the ability to use online tools safely and productively will not deliver the full benefit.

Ghana should be proud of the digital progress it has made, but pride should not make us ignore the people still struggling to connect. The real test of a digital nation is not how fast the internet is in its best connected neighbourhoods. It is whether a child in a rural school, a trader in a small town, a nurse at a remote clinic and a young entrepreneur outside the major cities can participate in the same digital economy with reasonable cost and confidence.

Good internet is no longer a luxury reserved for entertainment. It is infrastructure for opportunity. Roads connect people to physical markets. Electricity powers homes and businesses. In the same way, reliable and affordable internet now connects citizens to education, finance, information, jobs and public services. Ghana's digital future will remain incomplete until that connection reaches every community in a form people can actually use.

By Philipa Serwaa
University of Energy and Natural Resources P.O. Box 214 Sunyani, Bono Region

E-mail: [email protected]