African regulators - meeting of regulators

African Association of Telecommunications Regulators created

An African Association of Telecommunications Regulators was created here Friday by participants in the eighth African forum of telecommunications regulators and operators.

"The General Assembly gave us the authorisation to set up an African Association of Telecommunications Regulators," the Director General of Senegal's Regulatory Agency for Telecommunications and Posts (ARTP), Daniel Goumalo Seck, told PANA.

"In one year, the General assembly of African regulators will be convened and we will be in a position to propose to them the legal and statutory framework which will make it possible for the organisation to take off," Seck said.

The forum, which ended after two days of deliberation, brought together 130 representatives of regulatory organisations and African telecommunications operators.

The Secretariat of the Association will be located in Senegal for a one-year term.

Highlighting the importance of creating a continental association of regulators, Seck said "We want to move forward in this field and the aim is to create a common market for Africa as a whole considering that this will call for the harmonisation of policies in the legal and statutory fields as far as telecommunications are concerned."

According to Seck, the forum also addressed the situation of African small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in the field of telecommunications.

"The SMEs are the subject of our attention. As regulators, as an African associa tion, we are going to increasingly push, support the SMEs in information and communication technologies", the Senegalese declared.