On September 29, 2020, the National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) of the telecom sector of the member countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) will validate the action plan for the effective rollout of the free-roaming project by March 31, 2021. This was the resolution taken last week.

At the virtual meeting organized on September 15, 2020, to review progress made in the implementation of the sub-regional tariff initiative and develop a strategy for its acceleration, the NRA Directors General adopted a resolution allowing countries that are ready to start it immediately to do so.

They also entrusted the Telecom/ICT Regulatory Authority of Côte d'Ivoire (ARTCI) with the coordination of measures to strengthen collaboration between the various telecom regulators in the implementation of free-roaming. The Ivorian telecom regulator will be supported in this task by the National Communications Authority (NCA) of Ghana.

Currently, only Senegal, Guinea, Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Togo, Sierra Leone, and Liberia have launched the project to abolish roaming charges on mobile communications.