On July 1st, 2025, Ghanaians woke up expecting to receive some good news concerning the cost of internet data bundles for their smart devices.
In the previous month, the Minister of Communications, Samuel Nartey George, announced a deal with telecoms to boost data bundle values by 10-15% without raising prices.
However, the new bundle pricing doesn’t seem to have pleased a lot of users, with most taking to social media and Reddit to complain about the new bundles.
Despite Ghana’s reputation as having some of Africa’s cheapest data, the reality on the ground tells a different story. For some, they feel overburdened when they have to purchase data bundles.
In 2023, a report by Cable.co.uk pegged the average cost of 1GB of mobile data in Ghana at $0.40, ranking it the third cheapest in Africa and second in West Africa.
Although that sounds like a bargain, the reality is much different on the ground.
When you consider that 1GB in Ghana, often costing around 17 GHC ($1.20), is nearly equivalent to the daily minimum wage of 19.97 GHC ($1.61).
For the average Ghanaian, scraping by in an economy that had been battered by inflation and a weakening cedi, the price for data is a little out of reach.
So, why are data costs still considered high? The answer lies in a tangle of regulatory missteps, market dominance, disappearing competition, and structural woes.
The MTN Juggernaut
At the heart of the issue is MTN Ghana, the telecom giant that commands roughly 78.9% of the market.
In 2020, the National Communications Authority (NCA) slapped MTN with a Significant Market Power (SMP) designation, a move meant to curb its dominance and foster competition.
The NCA wanted to prevent a monopoly by forcing MTN to price its services higher than competitors like AT Ghana (formerly AirtelTigo) and Telecel, giving smaller players a fighting chance.
But the SMP designation has backfired spectacularly. Instead of sparking competition, it’s handcuffed MTN from offering lower prices, creating a ripple effect that keeps data costs high across the board.
Smaller players like AT Ghana and Telecel, hampered by outdated infrastructure and limited coverage, could not capitalize on the opportunity.
Taxes and Infrastructure: The Hidden Costs
If there’s a culprit to blame for high data prices, the blame might need to be placed at the feet of the government.
Telecom operators in Ghana face a barrage of taxes. These taxes include corporate income tax, value-added tax (VAT), communications service tax (CST), withholding tax, import duties, and pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) taxes, alongside regulatory fees and levies.
In 2023, the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications reported that telecom companies paid over GHC 9.83 billion in taxes and other payments, accounting for approximately 7.38% of Ghana’s total revenue that year.
This marked a 30% increase from the GHC 6 billion paid in 2022.
High taxes, combined with the soaring cost of maintaining infrastructure—think fuel for base stations, equipment maintenance costs—drive up operational expenses.
Building and maintaining towers is also expensive. Telecom companies also had to wrangle with foreign exchange rates fluctuating wildly (the cedi was once trading at 16 GHC to $1), and the high cost of importing critical equipment like base stations.
Short-Term Data Bundle Gains
In June 2025, Communications Minister Samuel Nartey George announced a deal with the telecom companies to boost data bundle values by 10-15% starting on July 1, without raising prices.
On July 1st, MTN and other telecos rolled out their new data bundle packages. Some packages, including MTN’s 399 GHC plan, now offer 214GB, up from 92.88GB.
However, the new data packages feel like short-term gains when the real issue of infrastructure costs and high taxes needs to be addressed.
The government has stated that it is banking on long-term fixes, including the Next-Generation Infrastructure Company (NGIC), a shared 4G/5G network set to roll out. Currently, the rollout is uncertain.
The Minister of Finance has also stated that the Ministry of Finance is currently reviewing taxes on the telecom industry to reduce its tax burden.
At the moment, with inflation still high at 18.4% and the current cedi rate hovering around 10 GHC to $1, a drastic drop in data prices might not come down anytime soon.
Until the NCA rethinks its SMP policy, taxes are eased, and telecom infrastructure gets a serious upgrade, Ghanaians will still be paying a “premium” for their data packages.
