OPTIC PRESS POINT ON DIGITAL NEWS

B day to day

Welcome to this press briefing on the latest developments in the digital sector in Senegal

We will make a preliminary statement which will be a panorama of current events of the sector and will be followed by questions and answers.

As you know, the Senegal Digital Strategy 2025 provides for the setting up of an interdepartmental steering and monitoring committee.

SN2025 was adopted in late 2016. We are in July 2018 and this steering and monitoring committee is still not set up.

For us, this is the starting point for the implementation of the strategy. The various actors have no visibility on the implementation of this strategy that was developed with a consensus rarely equaled in Senegal.

This steering committee must be set up as soon as possible if we want to achieve the high objectives that we have set ourselves by 2025.

Our fears already raised several times are being founded.

Studies are launched as part of the implementation of the strategy without real visibility from the actors. These actions are undertaken in a dispersed and uncoordinated way

At our last meeting with the Primature, we received assurances that this committee would be set up. We are still waiting several months later.

We are sounding the alarm about the urgency of setting up SN2025's interdepartmental steering and monitoring committee. We must break with the past when we developed several policy documents that could not be implemented because of the lack of steering and monitoring instruments.

• • Legislative and Regulatory Framework

We participated in the review of the legislative and regulatory framework which has just come to an end and we have been able to pose in the debates the problems of companies in the sector.

It must be understood that the sector, formerly known as the telecommunications sector and then the ICT sector, has undergone many changes. The text (formerly the telecommunications code) had to adapt to the new paradigms brought about by the digital revolution

Efforts were made with the modification of the name (code of electronic communications) and the taking into account of new uses. 19659002]

The new code was approved by the Council of Ministers on June 6, 2018 subject to comments made by members of the Government.

We await the final version of the document to be presented to the National Assembly to see if all the private sector concerns that were discussed during the review process have been taken into account in the law

We also hope that the implementing decrees will be presented to the National Assembly along with the new text to be applicable and implemented immediately.

Among our concerns is the establishment of the National Council of Digital. Its creation is planned in the text, but we remain very attentive to its composition and its missions.

• • Support for Digital Innovation and Public-Private Partnerships

The President of the Republic announced the establishment of a billion-dollar fund for digital innovation at the Digital Forum held on March 15th at CICAD. The private sector has welcomed this announcement with great satisfaction. Our young thumbs must be supported consistently so that the next Google, Facebook or Airbnb can get out of our ecosystem. The potential is there: Each time a competition is organized, we are amazed by the number and quality of projects. It is necessary to reinforce the existing structures like CTIC Dakar which is an original public and private initiative and very appreciated. It is also necessary to supplement the existing system by making start-up funds available upstream of existing incubators and then funds for the downstream acceleration of these same incubators. The DER which intends to invest in the subject has a space to occupy different from the existing incubators it has to support.

However, we have some reservations about this fund that has just been set up.

The digital sector generates very significant financial resources, we reasonably believe that it is possible for the State to mobilize much more resources to support the development of the Digital Economy. This fund of 1 billion can be validly revised upward, given all that generates the sector, to allow to have much more impact.

Moreover, it seems to be exclusively reserved for start-ups. 19659002] It should be noted that in addition to support for start-ups, it is also necessary to support digital companies that no longer correspond to the "start-up category". These companies also have significant financing needs with innovative projects. Alternative financing mechanisms must be put in place to support them.

We believe that a "Digital Innovation Act" is needed for Senegal in opposition to a "startup act" which is more restrictive.

Supporting innovation is also promoting access to public control, which is a real lever for spreading our solutions.

The SN2025 provides, among other solutions, 50% access public order for local businesses. These measures must be implemented as soon as possible.

This concerns in particular the State Computer Agency. Our position has always been clear:

• Outsourcing by operating the impressive infrastructure of ADIE by the private sector (1)
• Get the Senegalese private sector to design and implement solutions and services for the Senegalese state. (2)

With regard to infrastructure, we believe that the model we are proposing will facilitate the necessary evolution towards infrastructure sharing.

A study has just been launched in this direction by the Ministry in charge of Digital. It will certainly identify the measures to implement to improve access to connectivity to a greater number of Senegalese through the pooling of infrastructure.

The moment is all the more favorable as this notion of sharing infrastructure is framed in the new electronic communications code.

Regarding the second point of "getting things done", we look forward to meeting with ADIE very soon to discuss how to concretely implement partnerships on its projects. In particular, we intend to discuss the subject of the enormous "Smart Senegal" project and assure ourselves this time that we will be associated.

According to the ADIE website, the Smart Senegal project aims to disseminate information and communication technologies throughout the national economy. In particular, it will involve the deployment of network and telecommunications infrastructures and the establishment of technological platforms making it possible to make a significant contribution, on the one hand, to improving the living conditions of the population through greater security. of our cities, to better access to education, health and public information in all communes of Senegal and secondly to support the economic development of Senegal in the priority sectors of the Emerging Senegal Plan (PSE).

The national private sector has no visibility on this Smart Senegal project whose very important financing comes from China.

As we said above, today we have a compass that is the Digital Senegal Strategy 2025 and it should federate all the initiatives affecting our sector with a coherent steering.

The NWP project is the major PES project in the digital sector. Our Organization participates in the work of the steering committee and the technical committee which have been set up. Our position is to ensure that the HTP is a real instrument of competitiveness for our companies and that they establish themselves in mass on the site.

We lead the plea for the interests of the national private sector are taken into account in this major project. This begins with the strengthening of the private sector presence in the project steering bodies.

At present, we have only one private sector representative out of 16 members who constitute the steering committee. We asked for a modification of the decree to increase this number of representatives to at least 5 members.

We had the assurance of the Minister in charge of Digital, also Chairman of the steering committee, to strengthen the presence the private sector in this Copil by amending the decree establishing the COPIL

The Steering Committee considered at its meeting of 21 June 2018 the proposal for a management model for the park presented by FONSIS. This management model proposes the outsourcing of the management of the park which will be entrusted to a professional who already manages several parks of international renown. His experience and relationship portfolio will be of benefit to Senegal in that he will be able to attract large global companies that are already his clients to other parks he manages.

Our Organization supports this model of management, keeping in mind that national companies will have to be given priority so as to enable them to make the most of this very favorable ecosystem that will be put in place.

We will also be able to capitalize on our experience in the management of a technology park to be able to manage our own park in the near future

Tenders for the construction and equipment of the two towers and the construction of the datacenter were launched and the award procedure

The cost of frequencies has still not been revised despite the strong demands of the actors and remains ten times more expensive than in the whole sub-region. we. Telecom operators and ISPs are waiting for the decree and the law to be voted in assembly.

The law on the sharing of infrastructures should have allowed a mutualisation of these, however on the ground, it is not is not yet put into practice thus rendering the costs redundant and much more expensive.

Interconnection and collocation prices remain high, making operational costs prohibitive.

In addition, ISPs do not have the right to IPTV and VOIP. This puts them in a position of weakness compared to the telecom operators who make them packaged offers internet + voice + TV.

The ADSL grouping has finally arrived and it is an excellent thing but for operators and ISPs to adopt, the costs of interconnection and collocation should be accessible and that the ISPs can benefit from the total unbundling to make tripleplay offers (internet + voice + TV) or double play (internet + voice).

We must however, go further if we want to achieve the goals we have set ourselves. The split of the copper loop must extend to the fiber that is gaining the upper hand over the copper.

Furthermore, the infrastructure operator is still not operational while the ISPs really had to 'press on him to avoid Capex and Opex high and allow them to challenge the environment of the Internet.

In summary, ISPs have entered the commercial phase since March 2018 but it is still important barriers to entry.

We are counting on the government, including the Ministry of the Digital Economy and ARTP, to support this process by removing these barriers in emergency procedures because the market and competition do not wait.

For our part, we continue to remain vigilant on the environment so that these actors can fully exist to the great benefit of the Senegalese people.

It is stated in the new code of electronic communications that "most of the funds "Collected under the FDSUT" is intended for the electronic communications sector ". This certainly deserves clarification on the percentage that will be reserved for the sector.

We must not find ourselves in the very ambiguous past situation where it is not very precise.

We recently attended the presentation of the report final update of the Universal Service strategy. Very important recommendations on the reorganization of the governance mechanism of the Fund were made by the actors. These recommendations must be applied to allow a more coherent functioning of the Fund.

• The current FDSUT is today a hybrid organ which depends entirely for its operational functioning of the ARTP, which does not benefit from any financial autonomy and which is unable to guarantee transparent and appropriate use of funds raised under universal access / service. In addition, the revised draft telecommunications code clearly gives the initiative to the Ministry of Telecommunications and Digital Economy to define the policy of universal access / service and to define the associated strategy.

Two main organizational options are proposed in the final report on the update of SU's strategy:

• Option A : Centralize universal access / service activities within MTEN dissociating the governance structure from the financial structure (eg the Colombian model)
• Option B : Make the FDSUT an entity with legal personality and financial and management autonomy (ex : ANSUT in Ivory Coast) managing all aspects of the implementation including the financing of the access / universal service

We militate for us for a model in the image of Ivory Coast is doing very well.

On the other hand, we learned of the introduction of the "special contribution of the telecommunications sector" (CST), which replaces the special levy on the telecommunications sector and the contribution for economic development.

In the text which dedicates this tax (Law n ° 2018-24 of the 06 July 2018 on the amended finance law for the year 2018) it is specified that it is a tax of 5% on turnover excluding taxes and net interconnection charges of any operator of telecommunications networks open to the public.

This new charge would replace all levies in the telecommunications sector.

This tax being a tax, it will be paid directly to the public treasury and may be used for any other activity not related to the digital sector.

So you see the immediate impact on the FDSUT q It is fed by the levies that have been removed, in particular the codete.

The LFR which has just been promulgated does not specify whether the FDSUT will be financed by this CST.

The new electronic communications code and the CST must be coherent on the financing of the FDSUT. We remain vigilant on this very important issue.

We deplore the fact that the telecommunications sector is still taken like a cash cow instead of being considered as a real economic lever.

We deplore once again an uncoordinated approach whose sole motivation is to tax without assessing previous taxes and without measuring the impact of these new measures.

Our point on the question remains the same, it is necessary that the funds collected in our sector return the great majority to the sector.

On another point related to taxation, telecom operators are faced with a problem related to the lack of clarity of the legislation. In addition to paying taxes at the central level, local authorities add an additional tax on the facilities in their communes. Some communities even refuse the installation of BTS antennas by operators in case of non-payment of a tax to the municipality. This situation is slowing down the country's digital coverage. The RODP decree (royalties for temporary occupation of the State Public Domain) should be quickly signed and implemented to avoid confusion.

• ACTIVITIES IMPULSE BY OPTIC TO THE BENEFIT OF MEMBERS: Case of NTF 4

As part of the NTF4 Senegal project (Netherlands Trust Found), officially launched in Dakar on November 20, 2017 under the auspices of the Minister of Commerce and in partnership with ASEPEX and OPTIC, a call for expressions of interest has selected SMEs in the Information Technology and Business Process Outsourcing (IT / BPO) sector.

The NTF4 Senegal project will support 80 companies over 3 years in their international development on the basis of support packs according to their export potential, of which 20 will be accompanied on foreign markets. In addition, 50 startups will benefit from "Pitch Internationalization" training and other various accompaniments.

All companies and startups in the sector who have expressed their interest will also be able to access market studies and the online training platform. of the ITC

In addition to this priority given to the internationalization of enterprises, the project will also support, in a more global way, the IT sector and the outsourcing of business processes in the definition of a national strategy for the development of exports

The first consultation on the strategy was held in early July and a first draft is being drafted. It will be presented at the second consultation scheduled for early September.

This strategy will be presented for adoption by the Government at the end of this year.

The last important part of the project is the support of support structures to better support companies in the sector by offering them a portfolio of adapted services.

In this context, OPTIC has benefited support for Assisted Self-Assessment and the definition of a Road Map that will enable our Organization to better take care of the needs of its members and the sector.

The main objective of this mission is: " To consolidate and improve the performance and the structure of OPTIC in order to establish its position of representative, spokesperson and companion of companies and the digital sector of Senegal ".

The restitution of OPTIC's performance diagnosis and the Roadmap (FRAP) took place on Tuesday, June 26, 2018 in front of OPTIC members as well as several of our partners.

Several actions are planned on both next years and will allow OPTIC to move towards a position of Reference Organization in the digital sector.

We take this opportunity to thank the ITC and the Dutch cooperation for this project which will help structure the export policy of our sector.

• Mapping and Repository of Trades

Under the auspices of the CNP, OPTIC undertook, with the International Labor Office (ILO) and the Ministry of Labor, a reflection on the implementation of a collective bargaining agreement. the digital sector.

Indeed, our sector has never had a collective agreement and is attached to the 1956 collective bargaining agreement. This agreement is no longer relevant since the denunciation by the power plants. on 5 March 2018.

There is, however, a branch agreement for the telecommunications subsector, which mainly concerns telecom operators.

Senegal will be a pioneer in the case of workers in the National Collective Interprofessional Convention (NCCI). implementation of a collective agreement in the digital sector because no African country has, as far as we know, a collective agreement in this sect

The process of setting up a sectoral collective agreement will make it possible to have a classification of trades and jobs in the digital (repertory).

These tools are instruments of competitiveness for the enterprise and Human Resources Development Instruments

We are hopeful that the long-awaited collective agreement will be drawn up by the stakeholders as soon as possible.

The 3 ^th edition of SIPEN was held in February 2018. This annual event organized by OPTIC has positioned itself as the reference digital show in our West African region and even beyond . We receive delegations from several African countries, but also from the Maghreb with Tunisia and Morocco and from France.

It must be emphasized, however, that despite all our efforts to mobilize our public authorities in the organization of this event, we have not yet made our voices heard.

Every year, we attend trade fairs organized by our partners in Morocco, Tunisia and even more recently in Côte d'Ivoire, but it should be noted that these events are co-organized by the private and public sectors of these countries. This gives a much larger dimension to this kind of demonstration.

We attended, just 1 month after the SIPEN, the 1 ^er national forum on digital, held on March 15 at CICAD under the effective presidency of his Excellency the President of the Republic. This forum brought together the entire national digital ecosystem and the President of the Republic was able to discuss with the different actors. We ourselves have been able to deliver our point of view on the development of the digital economy in Senegal and on the main issues for our country.

However, we consider that this is a form of dispersion with the organization of several digital events in place of a major event that would present Senegal as a showcase for Digital in Africa

We hope that the second edition of this national forum will be held at the same time as SIPEN. These two events would benefit from being merged around a unique annual event where all Senegalese potential could be presented.

CONTACTS PRESS:

1. Eugene NIOX Permanent Secretary OPTIC

Tel : 33 821 94 04 Mob : 77 333 62 62

Email : [email protected]