|
Liberalisation, Regulation, Africa: Next year the 13 countries making up the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) will take one step further towards their aim of integrating the economies of their region.
In this case, the aim is to form a common and liberalised telecommunication and IT market that will address the existing gaps in information gathering and sharing among ECOWAS members. Key technology for this initiative is a broadband backbone across the region. The resulting infrastructure will provide effective inter-state links which will in turn be connected to the international network so as to provide cross-border connectivity and GSM roaming in the sub-region. Broader plans also feature in the ECOWAS strategy. For example, regulatory standards and institutional frameworks will underpin the countries’ aspiration for a common market, a common tariff and a harmonised regulatory regime for the 13 member states. Publicity for the ECOWAS plans was generated at the recent 6th Meeting of ECOWAS Ministers of Telecommunications and Information Communication Technology in Abuja. Acting Deputy Executive Secretary Dr Monisoye Afolabi, speaking on behalf of ECOWAS Executive Secretary Dr Mohammed Ibn Chambas revealed the organisation’s intentions, and then invited the individual Ministers of Communications to approval the draft of the integrated telecommunication programme for the sub-region. For Dr Chambas the dynamic age of information, telecommunications and information communication technology are set to play vital roles in economic growth: they are indeed the driving force in most developed countries throughout the world. Information, Dr Chambas explained, had opened up opportunities which could galvanising the development of such crucial economic and social sectors as education, health, transport, and industry. ECOWAS had over the years recognised the role telecommunications could play in regional integration, especially when national policies could be harmonised and facilities improved. Liberalisation would encourage a viable, homogenous telecommunications common market capable of promoting economic integration, increasing access and inter-connectivity and finally forcing down telecommunication tariffs across West Africa. * The 13 members of ECOWAS are: Niger, Nigeria, Liberia, Benin, Burkina Faso, Liberia, Ghana, Mali, Togo, Sierra-Leone, Senegal, Guinea, and Cote d’Ivoire. |
