the second free roaming evaluation meeting closes its work in Lomé

Togo hosted at the beginning of the week an important meeting which is part of the process of digital integration on the African continent. This is the work of the 2nd Evaluation Meeting of free roaming in West Africa which started on Monday the 23rd and ended on Tuesday, July 24.

According to the Togolese Minister of Posts and the Digital Economy, Cina Lawson, this high-level meeting made it possible to take stock of the implementation of the Abidjan Protocol on free roaming entered into force end of March 2017 after its signature on 26 November 2016 by seven West African countries (Guinea, Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Cape Verde, Togo).

« The implementation of Free Roaming allowed us to establish the free Roaming call reception in the area and the very significant reduction in call prices which are now indexed to the rates applicable to local users. ", explained Cina Lawson, during the work of this meeting. " Free roaming will ultimately be a real business opportunity for operators because of the increasing volume of traffic. It is a win-win adventure for both operators and users and ultimately for the states "added the Minister of Digital Economy.

Implementing African Unity

her intervention, Cina Lawson also pleaded for a better implementation of the Abidjan Protocol. " One way to implement African unity is to allow Africans traveling in the countries of the Hemisphere to avoid paying surcharges when making calls ." declared the Togolese Minister.

For its part, Abayeh Germain Boyodi, Director General of the Regulatory Authority of Posts and Telecommunications (ART & P) of Togo – organizer of the meeting – explained that with free roaming You no longer need to get a map of a visited country to make or receive calls. " The advantage of free roaming is that when you are called, you pay nothing and the one who called you, always pays locally. When you issue in another country, it is the tariff of the visited country which is applied to you, so there is no more surcharge explained Abayeh Germain Boyodi.

Note the free roaming is an important axis of the political will of African heads of state to establish a common digital market on the Continent. It is a regional integration tool designed to boost the free movement of goods and people and improve the control of state security. A flagship project of the Smart Africa Alliance, it brings together 24 African countries today.