The West Africa Telecommunications Regulators Meeting (WATRA) has stated it’s engaged on initiatives to facilitate infrastructure sharing amongst West African international locations to decrease the price of web for telecom subscribers throughout the area.
Govt Secretary of the physique, Mr. Aliyu Aboki, disclosed this throughout a digital assembly with stakeholders on the weekend. Based on him, infrastructure akin to gateways, and information centres are services that might be shared by international locations within the area.
Admitting that the price of web throughout West African international locations remains to be excessive, Aboki stated a decrease value of web entry would improve the digital financial system for the respective international locations within the area and enhance the consumption of information by the residents, which in flip generate extra income for the telecom operators.
“We’re exploring regional initiatives to share infrastructure and cut back value. For instance, we have now infrastructures like gateways, information heart servers, and so forth. These are infrastructures that may be shared and utilized by totally different international locations with out essentially having everybody constructing the identical infrastructure.
So, we’re collectively these wealthy regional initiatives that allow us to share infrastructure to deliver down the price of Web in the end,” Aboki said.
Interconnecting West Africa
Figuring out lack of interconnectivity as one other issue driving up the price of telecom companies within the sub-region, the WATRA Govt Secretary lamented that at the moment, for content material hosted in a single African nation to be accessed in one other African nation, it has to first undergo Europe.
He stated that is occurring as a result of information facilities within the area will not be related straight, an element that’s making web entry costlier for the customers.
Whereas noting that one of many important packages of WATRA is to encourage the interconnectivity of the respective international locations, Aboki stated:
We’ve information facilities bobbing up in several international locations, however to interconnect to those information facilities, we have to undergo submarine cables to Europe and the Western international locations and again to Africa, simply to interconnect.
This creates extra value. Now, as soon as we will interconnect inside our areas throughout boundaries, we will definitely drive down prices.
Along with that, he stated the group can be working with international locations and nationwide regulators in respective West African international locations to enhance their common service insurance policies to spice up rural connectivity.
Digital financial system development
Highlighting the impacts of web connectivity on the sub-region financial system, Aboki famous that growing web penetration, cellular connectivity, and a tech-savvy youth inhabitants have led to fast development in West Africa’s digital financial system.
He disclosed that the digital financial system at the moment contributes round $30 billion yearly to the area’s GDP. Based on him, the West African telecommunications market is now valued at $63.17 billion with over 400 million cellular subscribers.
What it’s best to know
WATRA was established in 2002 because of the necessity for a standard platform for the telecommunications and ICT regulators within the West African area to change info, share greatest practices, and coordinate their actions.
- The group performs an essential function in harmonizing the regulatory framework and insurance policies for telecommunications and ICT within the area.
- WATRA develops and implements the West African Frequent Regulatory Framework for Telecommunications and ICT, which supplies pointers and rules for the regulation of the sector within the area.
- WATRA additionally coordinates and harmonizes the nationwide insurance policies and laws of the member states to make sure consistency and compatibility within the area.
