The West Africa Telecommunications Regulators Assembly (WATRA), which as its name implies, brings together the region’s telecommunications and ICT regulators, is apparently hoping to encourage infrastructure sharing to lower the cost of internet access in West Africa.
The Executive Secretary of the body, Mr Aliyu Aboki, suggested recently that such infrastructure as gateways and data centres are facilities that could be shared by countries in the region.
However, as Aboki pointed out, lack of interconnectivity is another issue driving up the cost of telecom services in the sub-region. It seems that, for content hosted in one African country to be accessed in another African country, it has to first go through Europe via submarine cables because of the lack of direct connectivity among data centres.
As online resource Nairametrics notes, increasing internet penetration, mobile connectivity, and a tech-savvy youth population have led to rapid growth in West Africa’s digital economy. WATRA figures suggest that the digital economy currently contributes around US$30 billion annually to the region’s GDP. However, the cost of internet access across West African countries is still high.
As an organisation that plays an important role in harmonising the regulatory framework and policies for telecommunications and ICT in the West African region, WATRA may be well placed to encourage the type of coordination that could bring down prices for the growing number of internet users across the region. However, whether its members respond positively to such an initiative remains to be seen.
