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Minister of Communications, Digital Technology and Innovations, Samuel Nartey George, has presented his letters of intent to the African Union (AU) expressing his interest in running for the chairmanship of the AU’s Specialised Technical Committee on Communication and ICT (STC-CICT).
The minister first got clearance from President John Dramani Mahama, who is himself set to become chair of the AU in 2027.
This, therefore, is a strategic move, as Sam George will get to drive ICT and digital trade policies of the AU during the term of the president as AU chair, putting him in a position to execute the president’s vision in the sector more efficiently.
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The minister disclosed this in an exclusive interview with Techfocus24 at the ongoing Mobile World Congress 2026 in Barcelona, Spain.
According to him, his bid is already gaining strong support across the continent, as South Africa is, for instance, rallying all the countries in the SADC (Southern African Development Community) region to support his bid.
“Smart Africa has also expressed their intent to support our bid – Egypt is also working with us to rally North Africa, and I am confident that my colleagues in the other regions will also come on board as we engage them going forward,” he said. “I am optimistic that it will be a consensus election because I don’t foresee any other country putting up a bid because Ghana stands tall when it comes to digitalisation.”
He said over the last 72 hours he has sent messages to his counterparts in all 54 African states informing them of what Ghana’s chairmanship of the AU and of the STC-CICT will do for the continent and for their individual countries.
Sam George explained that this is an opportunity to make President Mahama’s chairmanship of the AU one of the periods that the AU puts proper digital trade frameworks in place for AfCFTA (Africa Continental Free Trade Area) to ensure that seamless cross-border transfers, data flows and logistic moves actually happen in reality.
“It is a golden opportunity to make regulatory harmonisation practical such that while the sovereignties of African states remain intact, data flow is enhanced in a manner that allows a regulator in one country to approve a transfer from another country with no regulatory difficulties.
“We don’t need to rewrite the script – the script is already there – what we need is leadership, and that is the kind of leadership Ghana intends to provide at the level of the AUC STC-CICT,” he stated.
He believes that, with President Mahama as AU Chairperson, it will be much easier to get all heads of states to adopt the various digital trade frameworks and regulatory harmonisation protocols to get Africa out of the clutches of the West when it comes to cross-border transfers.
Sam George noted that recently, even Europe has initiated moves to get out of the clutches of the US to ensure that cross-border transfers and settlements are initiated and settled all within Europe. So, it is time for Africa to follow the trend and also take steps to ensure that all financial flows are initiated and settled within Africa without having to go through a dollarisation process in New York.
He is confident that Ghana’s leadership of the AU will lead to giant steps towards liberating Africa from the digital clutches of the West.
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