Clouding With Barden 🧑🏿‍💻☁️

AWS Solutions Architect || Atlassian Champion || Cloud Engineer || Convener @AwsGhana

[Clouding With Barden 🧑🏿‍💻☁️ @sbarden_]

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[Clouding With Barden 🧑🏿‍💻☁️ @sbarden_]

@Carlynk_Exports What’s the buy now price?

Or your estimate in total if I want this?

[Clouding With Barden 🧑🏿‍💻☁️ @sbarden_]

@hackSultan This weirdly makes a lot of sense 😂

[Stephen Frimpong @FrimpongTd]

“If a startup is offering cybersecurity services and critical database solutions to the Government of Ghana, is that really a startup?” Hon. Samuel Nartey George

Respectfully @samgeorgegh yes.

A startup can absolutely still be a startup while solving real government problems.

That is how innovation grows globally: prototype → pilot → testing → iteration → compliance → scale.

Companies like Palantir, Anduril, and even SpaceX worked with government early while still proving and refining what they were building.

That did not stop them from being startups.

And respectfully, even when a startup receives money from government, it should not be treated like “easy money.”

A lot goes into building sustainable tech: engineers, servers, cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, testing, iterations, maintenance, upgrades, support, documentation, and scaling.

The software people see is usually only the visible part.

A lot happens behind the scenes to keep systems secure and reliable.

That is why many people are asking a practical question:

If a student, startup, or local company pilots an innovative solution with a public institution and the product is still being tested and improved…

Do they immediately enter the same registration, certification, and fee structure as a mature enterprise vendor?

If yes, that could choke local innovation too early.

If no, then that distinction needs to be clearly stated.

Because Ghana needs room for local builders to experiment, pilot, improve, and grow before enterprise-level burdens kick in.

That is how stronger local technology ecosystems are built.
@kwekutech @gemini_dna @pazunre @TheDumbTechGuy @MacJordaN @koboateng

[Osaretin Victor Asemota @asemota]

If SA was such a great place, why didn't MTN, Multichoice and others just remain in South Africa? Infantile thinking.

[Nana B. @koboateng]

A minister went live on national television, visibly excited that he had finally found a “gotcha moment” against ordinary Ghanaians.

Why? Because a draft bill was published on the ministry’s official website, then quietly revised four different times through closed-door meetings without properly communicating any of those changes to the public.

After that, he confidently says:
“The old bill is dead. You people are online criticizing a dead bill. You don’t have the updated bill.” As if secrecy, poor communication, and public confusion are achievements.

You are pushing 15 digital bills that will affect millions of citizens, businesses, creators, and young people, yet the public engagement has been chaotic from the beginning. Instead of transparency, accountability, and respect, citizens are being mocked on live TV for reacting to the only version they were officially given access to.

Leadership is not a game of catching citizens off guard. If people are confused, the failure is in communication, not in the public asking questions. This is not it.

Ghana is failing us.

[sir Mike @MikelAsamoah]

If you like pass if you like don't, I'm not paying shit to you and your useless NITA.

[Nana B. @koboateng]

hmm @NITAGhana , if there is now a new version of the bill, why was it not circulated early enough for stakeholders to study before this engagement? How can citizens, professionals, startups, and industry players give meaningful feedback on a document they have not had proper time to review?????? #AskNITA @samgeorgegh

[K. @kwesi_dadson]

“Let’s do quick clean up and let it look like they’re illiterates who can’t read and analyze and just cause panic”

[Clouding With Barden 🧑🏿‍💻☁️ @sbarden_]

@MikelAsamoah Exactly

[sir Mike @MikelAsamoah]

We've built our careers around tech. We are not going to allow greedy bastards and babies with sharp teeth to feed off us in the name of license and regulations.

[Tech In Twi @tech_twi]

I don’t hate Sam George personally. I hate that he is still at that ministry because, from 2017 to 2024, he was part of us demanding that Ursula Owusu do better. That made many of us believe he was part of us and truly understood the struggles of the tech community.
Now he has the opportunity to make an impact for the very people who supported him, but he is doing the opposite. That is why many people, including me, are holding him to his own words.

[Nana Kwesi 👨‍💻 @kwesi_hyde]

So you have added an extra 2% charge on top of Paystack’s existing 1.95% fee, bringing the total transaction cost to nearly 4%? Does that genuinely make sense to you, @NITAGhana?

Do you understand the impact a ~4% charge on online transactions would have on businesses and consumers? Businesses will pass those costs on to customers, so what exactly are we achieving in the end? Driving people away from online commerce and making digital business even harder to sustain?

We fought against the e-levy, yet now another financial burden is quietly being introduced under a different name. It really makes one wonder what is discussed at these so-called “board meetings” and how decisions like these are arrived at.

[TheSophisticatedDumbTechGuy @TheDumbTechGuy]

Do you realize what ICT means?

You think software developers?
You can think remote workers?

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Don't worry. You're among. You'll understand it soon.

[Lotuses and Kafka Stories 🇨🇿🍵 @LotusesK]

So now if the bill is passed and devs start adding ‘NITA fees’ to their invoice, will the government be okay if people start outsourcing projects to let’s say Nigerian devs since they can’t afford their rates?

Cus the 500, 1k, 2k for webpage dierr we go shun mmom👍🏽

[benacq @benacq44]

If you think this NITA nonsense doesn't affect you, wait till you see my license fee as a line item in your invoice. Y3b3ky3 etua paarhn.

[JO⚡️🇬🇭 @Joojo_Dontoh]

Those of you who are in my comments saying “Ghana is not the only country that does this”, don’t be SILLY ok? Do you know the innovation hubs, incubation centers, startup tax cuts, runway extensions those countries provide? Dont be stupid challey. Call out stupidity pls.

[Nana B. @koboateng]

He may end up being the reason this government finds itself in opposition

[Nana B. @koboateng]

I’d rather give 1% of my money to those Indian YouTube teachers than to NITA any day.

[Kweku Tech @kwekutech]

the NITA fees are not the only thing ghana's tech ecosystem needs to know about.

there's a pattern forming. in march 2026, the government launched iCOLMS-GH.

a mandatory platform that every courier and delivery company in ghana must plug into.

A THREAD🧵