Illegal mining, or galamsey, is responsible for about a quarter of fibre-optic cable cuts recorded across Ghana, according to Samuel Nartey George, the Minister for Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations.
The disclosure highlights an increasingly overlooked cost of illegal mining: its impact extends beyond the destruction of land and water resources to critical national infrastructure that underpins Ghana’s digital economy.
Speaking at the Government Accountability Series on Monday, September 7, Mr George said about 25 per cent of fibre cuts nationwide are linked to galamsey, making illegal mining one of the most significant threats to the country’s telecommunications infrastructure.
He said road construction and excavation work by private developers remain familiar causes of fibre damage, but illegal mining presents a more difficult challenge because operators often fail to report the damage they cause.
“25 per cent of fibre cuts are a result of galamsey. The telecom industry is one of the worst hit by the activities of galamsey operators. They just go in and make cuts. Road contractors will often report fibre cuts, but galamsey operators won’t report them, and that is a real challenge to the sector.”
The problem is not simply the cost of replacing a damaged cable. Fibre-optic networks form the backbone of modern communications, carrying huge volumes of internet, voice and data traffic used by households, banks, businesses, schools, hospitals and government agencies.
When a major fibre route is severed, the effects can travel well beyond the point of damage. Customers may experience slower internet speeds, unstable connections or complete service interruptions, while telecommunications operators are forced to deploy engineers, specialised equipment and repair crews to identify and restore the affected section.
For an economy becoming increasingly dependent on digital services, such disruptions have a wider economic cost. Businesses that rely on uninterrupted connectivity for payments, cloud services, customer support, logistics and remote operations can lose productive time when networks go down. Financial institutions and other organisations operating digital platforms can also be exposed to operational disruptions.
A hidden cost of galamsey
Mr George’s figures add another dimension to the national debate over illegal mining.
The environmental consequences of galamsey — particularly the destruction of farmland and contamination of water bodies — have dominated public discussion. Its growing impact on telecommunications infrastructure suggests that the economic cost is broader and more systemic than is often acknowledged.
Fibre networks are expensive and technically demanding infrastructure. Unlike a damaged road that may be visible to contractors and authorities, underground cables can be difficult to locate once excavation begins. In mining areas, repeated digging and changes to the landscape can make the protection and maintenance of existing infrastructure particularly difficult.
There is also a significant reporting problem. Where legitimate construction companies accidentally damage fibre infrastructure, telecom operators can often be notified quickly, allowing repair teams to be dispatched. Illegal mining operations, by contrast, may leave damaged infrastructure unreported, prolonging service interruptions and making it harder for network operators to determine what has happened.
This creates a vicious cycle: the initial damage is caused by excavation, but the economic cost continues to accumulate through downtime, emergency repairs and the disruption of services that depend on the network.
Infrastructure protection becomes a digital-economy issue.
The minister’s comments point to a broader policy question for Ghana: how can the country protect critical digital infrastructure as it expands connectivity while illegal and uncontrolled excavation continues?
The answer is unlikely to rest solely with telecommunications companies. Protecting fibre infrastructure requires better coordination among telecom operators, local authorities, mining regulators, road contractors and security agencies, particularly in areas where excavation and mining activity are concentrated.
There is also a case for stronger mapping and marking of underground infrastructure, improved notification systems before excavation begins and tougher enforcement where operators knowingly or recklessly damage critical communications networks.
For Ghana, the issue matters because fibre is no longer simply a telecommunications asset. It is part of the country’s economic infrastructure.
As more businesses move online, financial transactions become digital, and government services migrate to electronic platforms, the reliability of the underlying network becomes increasingly important. A damaged fibre cable can therefore affect far more than a person’s ability to browse the internet or make a phone call; it can interrupt the machinery of commerce itself.
The revelation that galamsey accounts for roughly one in every four fibre cuts therefore gives the illegal-mining debate a new dimension. The damage is not only being done to Ghana’s environment. It is also reaching into the infrastructure on which the country’s increasingly digital economy depends.
That makes the protection of fibre networks not merely an industry concern, but a national infrastructure and economic-security issue.
