By Politico staff writer
The National Telecommunications Authority (NaTCA) is set to host the West Africa Telecommunications Regulatory Assembly (WATRA) from 19 to 22, March this year. During the regional body’s meeting, the Director General of NaTCA Amara Pedou Brewah will take over as Chairman of WATRA until the next meeting in 2025.
Sierra Leone’s Minister of Communications, Technology, and Innovation Salima Bah will deliver the keynote address at the event and she is expected to showcase Sierra Leone’s remarkable improvement in the telecommunications sector over the last five years of President Julius Maada Bio.
Last year, at a digital conference in Abuja, Nigeria held on the 31st January and 1st February Positioning West Africa’s Digital Economy for the Future was placed at the center of the two-day deliberations and this year’s WATRA conference in Freetown will deepen that. WATRA seeks also to ensure West African countries collaborate and become proactive in leveraging the digital economy's advantages and emerge as key players in the global digital world. It seeks to build synergy and collaboration within the West African region for greater impact across Africa and the world generally.
During the conference, it is expected that WATRA would deliberate on the need for increased broadband penetration, and facilitate digital education too. There's a need for the West African subregion to leverage its vast population with a view to positioning and boosting the West African digital economy. The need for West African countries to explore their strength and weaknesses to force efficient and productive collaboration for a sustainable digital economy will be discussed.
Digital Public Infrastructure which is the responsibility of everybody to build and not just governments would be deliberated on. The positive strides of each participating country would be touched with a view to sharing knowledge and learning from varying experiences. The various challenges faced by each country towards the attainment of digital economy could also form a part of the conference.
The desire to close the skills gap in telecommunications and the digital economy of West African countries is an imperative that WATRA would deep dive into during the conference. The upscaling of telecommunications and digital skills among West African citizens would be crucial to the conference.
WATRA was established in November 2004 and is responsible for working with the telecommunications regulators of all 16 member states of ECOWAS to promote the adoption of regulations that stimulate economic growth through telecoms, deliver more affordable telecoms services to a greater number of West Africans, facilitate swift economic transactions using telecoms and improve wider and easier access to public services.
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