Member countries affiliated with Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have negotiated an agreement which effectively means that subscribers will no longer have roaming charges from January 2020.
ECOWAS Commissioner for Telecommunications and ICTs, Dr. Isaias Barreto da Rosa, described the decision as historic and something expected to “touch the lives of ordinary ECOWAS citizens and bring enormous contributions to the regional integration process, while striving to establish a single digital market in the region”.
“Due to the high cost of roaming charges, many people currently practice 'plastic' roaming (purchasing a local SIM) or use OTT (over-the-top) services over Wi-Fi networks ”. According to Owusu-Ekuful, the ECOWAS Roaming Initiative will increase revenue generation in the region's corridor and remove barriers to subscriber communication.
In preparation for this new policy, the ministry of communications in Ghana is consulting with the ministry of finance and plans to announce the removal of the current 6% surcharge on all international calls received for all ECOWAS traffic.
Meanwhile, the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) is also focused on addressing the region's high roaming charges. The Central African Telecommunications Regulators Assembly (ARTAC), in collaboration with the Regulatory Authority for Communications and E-mails (ARCEP), recently organized a workshop in N'Djamena, Chad, to deliberate on free or accessible roaming in Central Africa.
