The West Africa Telecommunications Regulators Assembly (WATRA) has said it is working on initiatives to facilitate infrastructure sharing among West African countries to lower the cost of internet for telecom subscribers across the region.
Executive Secretary of the body, Mr. Aliyu Aboki, disclosed this during a virtual meeting with stakeholders at the weekend. According to him, infrastructure such as gateways, and data centres are facilities that could be shared by countries in the region.
Admitting that the cost of internet across West African countries is still high, Aboki said a lower cost of internet access would enhance the digital economy for the respective countries in the region and increase the consumption of data by the citizens, which in turn generate more revenue for the telecom operators.
“We are exploring regional initiatives to share infrastructure and reduce cost. For example, we have infrastructures like gateways, data center servers, and so on. These are infrastructures that can be shared and used by different countries without necessarily having everyone building the same infrastructure.
So, we are collectively looking at these rich regional initiatives that enable us to share infrastructure to bring down the cost of Internet ultimately,” Aboki stated.
Interconnecting West Africa
Identifying lack of interconnectivity as another factor driving up the cost of telecom services in the sub-region, the WATRA Executive Secretary lamented that currently, for content hosted in one African country to be accessed in another African country, it has to first go through Europe.
He said this is happening because data centers in the region are not connected directly, a factor that is making internet access costlier for the users.
While noting that one of the critical programs of WATRA is to encourage the interconnectivity of the respective countries, Aboki said:
We have data centers springing up in different countries, but to interconnect to these data centers, we need to go through submarine cables to Europe and the Western countries and back to Africa, just to interconnect.
This creates additional cost. Now, once we can interconnect within our regions across boundaries, we will certainly drive down costs.
In addition to that, he said the organization is also working with countries and national regulators in respective West African countries to improve their universal service policies to boost rural connectivity.
Digital economy growth
Highlighting the impacts of internet connectivity on the sub-region economy, Aboki noted that increasing internet penetration, mobile connectivity, and a tech-savvy youth population have led to rapid growth in West Africa’s digital economy.
He disclosed that the digital economy currently contributes around $30 billion annually to the region’s GDP. According to him, the West African telecommunications market is now valued at $63.17 billion with over 400 million mobile subscribers.
What you should know
WATRA was established in 2002 as a result of the need for a common platform for the telecommunications and ICT regulators in the West African region to exchange information, share best practices, and coordinate their actions.
- The organization plays an important role in harmonizing the regulatory framework and policies for telecommunications and ICT in the region.
- WATRA develops and implements the West African Common Regulatory Framework for Telecommunications and ICT, which provides guidelines and principles for the regulation of the sector in the region.
- WATRA also coordinates and harmonizes the national policies and regulations of the member states to ensure consistency and compatibility in the region.