Mandatory Certification Gatekeeps Government Contracts

This provision restricts all public sector ICT procurement exclusively to Authority-certified providers, creating a mandatory gatekeeper system that divides the market into businesses that can serve government (certified) and those that cannot (non-certified). Combined with mandatory licensing (34) and professional certification (44), businesses face three separate compliance hurdles just to access government contracts—the largest institutional buyer in Ghana's ICT sector. The provision contains no exemptions for innovation pilots, emerging technologies, or startups, even those supported under the Authority's own capacity-building programs (55), and grants the Authority unilateral discretion to prescribe certification tiers without visible criteria or appeal mechanisms, creating uncertainty and potential for arbitrary application that disproportionately impacts SMEs and new entrants.