Six Countries To Benefit From ECOWAS Broadband Penetration Project

Six member countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) are to benefit from the region’s efforts to increase the broadband penetration in the community for improved internet services.

Indications to this development emerged recently when the first Steering Committee meeting on the Amilcar Cabral Submarine Cable project was held on December 16, 2022 in Praia, Cabo Verde. This meeting was preceded by an experts meeting held from December 14-15, 2022.

The project aims to provide the member states of Cabo Verde, the Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia and Sierra Leone with a subsea fibre optic cable which will Increase international broadband capacity and guarantee redundancy in the concerned countries.

The objective of the meeting, according to a statement issued by the ECOWAS Commission, Abuja, was to review the progress of the project preparation, examine the draft Project Memorandum of Understanding and adopt the Project Road Map.

The meeting was attended by ministers in charge of telecommunication / digitalisation and their representatives. Also in attendance was the ECOWAS commissioner for Infrastructure, Energy and Digitalisation of the ECOWAS Commission – Sediko DOUKA and development partners.

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The ministers emphasised the need for redundancy for the countries with only one international cable connection and affirmed their full support and commitment to the development of the Amilcar Cabral submarine cable project.

The meeting formally established the ministerial steering committee of the Amilcar Cabral Submarine Cable Project. The committee comprised the ministers responsible for Telecommunications/ ICT/ Digitalisation of Cabo Verde, the Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia and Sierra committee

The ministers unanimously adopted the Experts report and the recommendations therein. The ministers also decided to formally establish a project experts committee comprising members of the Ad hoc Technical committee to work with the ECOWAS Commission on the preparatory activities.

On the draft Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), the Ministers decided the following: That the MOU should be reviewed by legal experts to realign the language; that the establishment of the Ministerial Steering Committee and Experts Committee should be reflected as an article in the MOU; and Following the recommended amendments, the MOU should be sent to all the countries before end of December, 2022 for signature by 28th February 2023.

The Ministers reviewed and approved the project delivery roadmap, and instructed the ECOWAS Commission to explore all avenues to expedite the implementation of the activities therein. In particular, the Ministers instructed that activities under the legal and institutional framework workstream should be concluded by December 2023. This includes the preparation and adoption of Project Treaty and Inter-Governmental Agreement.