By Saio Marrah
A video documentary series produced by the Institute for Governance Reform (IGR) has indicated that amidst the current skyrocketing price of internet tariff by mobile telecommunication operators, the wholesale fiber internet price has reduced from 40 to 10 USD megabytes per second, between 2020 and 2023, representing a 300 percent reduction.
Volume two of the documentary titled: “Tragedies of Politics: A Follow-up on State-owned Enterprises” launched by IGR on Tuesday 12 March 2024, indicated that with the reduction of the said wholesale, consumers are expected to get cheaper prices of internet connectivity.
Reacting to the issue of foreign exchange over the last four years, at the event where the documentaries were screened, IGR’s Executive Director, Andrew Lavali noted that despite the depreciation of the country’s currency, the 300 percent reduction is far from being realized by consumers.
He also agreed that the National Telecommunications Authority (NaTCA) should ensure the massive reduction is felt by consumers.
The six-minute video is a documentary focused on justifying the privatization of state-owned enterprises to create decent jobs generate more revenue and improve services while referring to the sudden dramatic change that has happened to the operation of the submarine cable asset.
The documentary highlighted how many African countries have experienced a long failure of businesses owned and controlled by the government.
It explains how three institutions- Sierratel, the then Road Transport Corporation, and the public electricity provider alone in Sierra Leone lost 1.5 Billion dollars in 15 years.
The documentary launched by Lavali explains how the then Ernest Bai Koroma-led government in 2014 ordered the full taking over of Sierra Leone Cable (SALCAB), and secured a 30 million dollar loan from the World Bank to invest in the fiber internet entity.
Revenue from the supposed bandwidth sale was to repay the $30 million loan. The film reveals there was no due diligence on competency, which in turn resulted in massive failure.
It further indicated that it became so worse to a point that SALCAB could not generate revenue for the government to repay the $ 30 million loan, nor could it provide the internet service.
The total bandwidth delivery in the country went as low as 30 gigabytes per second after six years of operation, wholesale bandwidth prices stood at $40 per megabyte per second by 2020 and the average number of delivery failures per year increased from zero and doubled to three times in 2020.
With this failure, Lavali said the government in 2020 decided to contract the fiber cable to the US-owned company, Zoodlabs for management of the submarine cable asset.
With this, NaTCA has now received $700 in license fees since the takeover, and the National Revenue Authority (NRA) has received over 2.8 million dollars in taxes.
Approximately, $ 1.8 million goes to the government annually as a concession fee, with the country to repay the World Bank over the 15-year concession period.
To salvage such a situation, the documentary advises that the country improves services, the government embraces the right partnership with the private sector, and that the government stays out of the business of buying and selling.
It also pointed out that the government should be deliberate about the right partnerships with the private sector, negotiating a win-win partnership as well as monitoring and enforcing compliance.
Copyright © 2024 Politico (13/03/24)
