Oghenevwede Ohworiole in Abuja
The African Telecommunication Union (ATU), in partnership with the Global System for Mobile Association (GSMA), is working on modalities to reduce challenges facing the telecom industry and increase its revenue base from the $240 billion it currently contributes to African economies.
The Secretary General of the ATU, John Omo has stated that the telecom industry in Africa generates over $240 billion and that if regulators and governments work on investment policies it will increase the revenue.
Omo disclosed this at the ATU/GSMA workshop in with the theme: “Advancing Africa’s Digital Future: Data, Connectivity and Satellite Regulation” on Wednesday in Abuja
Omo said, “The GSMA this year released the Mobile Economy Africa report and I thought to myself before even the GSMA approached us for this partnership, I thought to myself that we do not appreciate some of the issues that we have for the work that we can do to help us understand where Africa’s future economy is and where our attention should be focused on. And through that work we now know, for example, that mobile technologies and services contributed to this continent 240 billion US dollars.
“We have mobile services contributing 240 billion US dollars to our economies. We have the mobile economy supporting 13 million jobs and has generated 45 billion US dollars in revenues.” he explained
He urged regulators to integrate the findings of the report into their regulatory services. “I would encourage that our role should not simply be to receive these findings, but to interrogate them, to try to understand them, test them against our national experiences, identify where the data and more information may be needed, especially in our various contexts, and consider how to better support the decision-making process.”
Speaking earlier, GSMA’s Head of Policy and Regulation, Michaela Angonius, called for modernisation of telecommunications licensing regimes across Africa.
Angonius said existing licensing frameworks remained technology-specific and were no longer suitable for emerging technologies such as satellite communications.
She recommended technology-neutral licensing systems that would accommodate all communication service providers under a common regulatory framework.
She urged governments to ensure Universal Service Funds (USFs) were effectively utilised to support rural connectivity instead of remaining dormant while increasing the cost burden on operators and consumers.
She advised regulators to prioritise investment-friendly policies over rigid quality-of-service regulations, adding that countries with the best network performance generally focused on encouraging infrastructure investment rather than imposing excessive regulatory requirements.
On affordability, she advocated for the removal of levies and taxes on entry-level smartphones to improve access to digital services across Africa.
She said that while different countries faced varying regulatory challenges, reforms should be tailored to national circumstances while promoting investment, competition and digital inclusion.
Senior Director of Public Policy and Communication, GSMA, Caroline Mbugwa, said Africa is entering the era of intelligence, where robust digital infrastructure would determine the continent’s readiness for Artificial intelligence (AI).
Mbugwa said though about 961 million Africans were covered by mobile broadband networks, they were not using the services due to affordability constraints, creating what GSMA describes as the “usage gap.”
“If this challenge remains unresolved, millions of Africans risk being excluded from AI adoption and the opportunities that come with digital transformation,” she said.
She called for urgent fiscal reforms, including reducing taxes on entry-level smartphones to make digital devices more affordable.
Mbugwa said that South Africa’s removal of a nine per cent luxury goods tax on entry-level smartphones had accelerated smartphone adoption.
She also said the challenge of expanding broadband infrastructure to rural and remote communities could cost between two and five times more than urban areas while generating significantly lower revenues.
She also advocated regulatory parity, insisting that all providers offering similar communication services should operate under the same regulatory framework to promote fair competition.
According to her, technology-neutral regulatory frameworks would enable operators to deploy the most suitable technologies, including satellite services, to bridge connectivity gaps.
“The Digital Africa Index provides regulators with practical evidence on where reforms are needed.
“Policy decisions should be data-driven if Africa is to achieve meaningful digital transformation.”
She also disclosed that GSMA would publish its AI Atlas initiative aimed at incorporating African languages into large language models to improve digital inclusion and AI accessibility.
She noted that Nigeria was among the participating countries, with four Nigerian languages already integrated into the initiatives.
