The Minister for Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations, Sam George, has said the government is developing a national data exchange hub to connect 48 data registries across public institutions, as part of efforts to improve national planning and ensure development projects are driven by evidence rather than political considerations.
He says the initiative will allow government institutions to share and analyse information across sectors, helping policymakers identify communities’ most pressing needs and allocate resources more effectively.
Speaking in an interview ahead of the second episode of the Digital Economy Forum, Mr. George explained that the project forms part of the government’s broader plan to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into public administration.
“The finance minister should be able to write a budget that is not driven by sentiments and political rhetoric, but that’s driven by hardcore data at the click of a button,” he said.
According to the minister, development decisions are sometimes influenced by political promises and demands from communities rather than a comprehensive assessment of their actual needs.
He explained that politicians campaigning in communities may promise roads or other infrastructure without necessarily having the data to establish whether those projects should take priority over other pressing concerns.
Using a hypothetical example, Mr. George said a community might demand a road when available health data could reveal that maternal mortality in the area is 12 per cent higher than the national average.
In such circumstances, he argued, investing in a maternity ward or hospital might have a greater impact on the lives of residents.
“The reality is, if you took the data sets that were being generated from different registries, for example, the health sector, you’d realise that maternal mortality in that community was 12% higher than the national average,” he explained.
“It then meant that the real concern and need of that community, even though they may need a road, the primary thing that will make the lives of those people better would have been a maternity ward or a hospital in there.”
The Ningo-Prampram MP believes that access to integrated data will enable government officials to assess competing development priorities more objectively, rather than relying primarily on requests made during political campaigns.
“I think that where we should get to as a country is that our interventions in communities must be driven by hardcore empirical evidence,” he stressed.
He questioned why decisions about public investments should be influenced primarily by political visibility or the preferences of influential individuals when data could provide a clearer understanding of what communities actually need.
“What’s reporting in the hospital? What’s happening to the pass rate in that community?” he asked.
“Do we need to invest in that community, not because a chief or an opinion leader thinks that this is a fanciful project they want, or because a politician thinks that this is something that will be visible enough for votes, but what actually makes the lives of the people better?”
Connecting government data through AI
The minister explained that the proposed data exchange hub is intended to address the fragmentation of information currently held by different public institutions.
He said although government agencies generate substantial amounts of data, much of the information remains in separate systems, making it difficult to analyse the country’s development needs comprehensively.
The proposed hub will seek to connect 48 registries, allowing information from different sectors to be brought together for analysis and decision-making.
“To be able to crunch those numbers, the various data sets, you need a data exchange hub we’re working on to have our 48 registries seamlessly interconnect,” he explained.
The initiative is expected to work alongside the government’s proposed national AI compute centre, which will provide the computing infrastructure needed to process large volumes of information.
The communications minister said the government has committed US$250 million towards the first phase of the AI compute centre, which it intends to develop with capacity to serve Ghana and other African countries.
He believes the two projects could complement each other by making government data more accessible for analysis while providing the technological capacity to identify patterns, assess development needs and support policy decisions.
The minister also identified agriculture as another area where the combination of data and artificial intelligence could improve government interventions.
He explained that satellite imagery and weather information could be analysed to support agricultural extension services, improve weather predictions and help farmers make better decisions.
Beyond development planning, Mr. George said the wider adoption of AI and integrated digital systems could also simplify how citizens access government services.
He cited efforts to standardise government forms and improve the delivery of electronic services as part of the ministry’s broader digital transformation agenda.
The minister did not specify when the data exchange hub would become fully operational or provide a separate cost estimate for the project.
For Mr. George, the ultimate objective is to build a public administration system that understands the needs of citizens and responds to them using reliable information.
He believes the successful integration of government data and artificial intelligence could help Ghana move towards more transparent, efficient and responsive public service delivery.
“A harmonised system that works for the benefit of the Ghanaian people,” he said, describing his vision of Ghana’s AI-powered future.
“I want to leave this ministry with a legacy that we’ve left a digitally inclusive and data-driven economy.”
The role of artificial intelligence in improving governance, economic productivity and public service delivery will form part of discussions at the second episode of the Digital Economy Forum, under the theme “AI and the Ghana Economy: Opportunity or Disruption?”
The forum, held in partnership with Hubtel, will feature the Minister for Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations, Sam George; Economist and Technical Advisor at the Finance Ministry, Dr. Theo Acheampong; Founder of AI for Ghana, Adam Watkins; Head of Engineering at Hubtel, Augustine Adjei; and Vice President of IMANI Africa, Bright Simons.
It will air live on JoyNews and Joy 99.7 FM on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, at 8 p.m.
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DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.
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