By Nasratu Kargbo
The Speaker of ECOWAS Parliament Sidie Mohamed Tunis has expressed frustration over the high cost of roaming data amongst ECOWAS member states, and the different tariff rates across the region. He also questioned why a West African traveler cannot use the same sims in two member states where the service provider is based.
Speaking at a meeting in Niger which started on the 28 February and ended on Saturday 4th March 2023, Tunis stated: “Why should MTN Ghana charge differently from MTN Nigeria, or MTN Togo, or MTN Benin or MTN Guinea-Bissau and other Telcos? Or why should an Orange subscriber from Liberia suffer the stress of acquiring a new Orange SIM card when he or she travels to Niger, or Sierra Leone, or Cote D’Ivoire or Guinea Bissau or GuineaConakry?”
He said that the level of disharmony in tariff regimes across the region has increased the communication burden and made it difficult to engage in commerce and integration within the sub-region. “What is more disturbing is that, in some of our neighboring countries, it is the same network operators, yet they fail to harmonize the charges for roaming” said Tunis.
He said the burden or cost of connectivity serves as a great disincentive for mobile adoption and penetration and that the lack of standardization and harmonization in the tariff regime among the mobile network operators in has become the first challenge to integration, given that communication is the prerequisite to integration anywhere in the world.
Tunis stated that based on his research mobile connectivity has the tendency to fast-track the region’s digital transformation and drive socio economic advancement in many areas which include industrial automation, healthcare, education and digital commerce. This, hesai said will support the region’s mission to integrate.
He added that the mobile telecommunications industry is at the heart of economic and social progress in West Africa, which is one of the main objectives of the ECOWAS.
During his Presentation, Dominic Azimbe Azumah said that people who roam the ECOWAS member states make use of telecommunication, and for region to benefit from trade within , seamless telecommunication roaming among members will be relevant to facilitate that success.
According to Azumah, some of the opportunities that the region stands to gain if they adopt a seamless telecommunication roaming include generation of significant revenue for economic development, easing of the process of payment for cross-border services in West Africa, increase in trade and investment, and enhancing security and counter-terrorism efforts in the region.
Lack of infrastructure, uneven network coverage, and insufficient competition were some of the challenges he highlighted that confront seamless telecommunication roaming in the sub-region.
“For instance, using an MTN sim, a person who receives calls with a Nigerian sim in Ghana is likely to pay as much as ₦30 per minute. This does not only make life difficult for the people in the ECOWAS member state but also impede economic development since only people who can afford will get involved” said Azumah.
(ECOWAS) held the delocalized meeting to discuss ways on how they can reduce or lower roaming data for ECOWAS member states.
The meeting’s theme was: "Telecommunications as a tool for economic integration: the need to achieve seamless roaming within ECOWAS member States". A press release explained that the prices charged for roaming are often very high that users have no reason to use these services.
It stated “The ECOWAS Parliament places a high regard to the theme considering its negative impact on the people as well as on their livelihood”.
“Roaming is considered of great importance for an economic bloc such as ECOWAS as it facilitates the reality of implementing the Protocol on Free Movement of People, goods and services, enhancing citizens’ active participation in the overall regional economic activities”, the release continued.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (06/03/23)
