Nigeria’s telecom landscape has driven the West African tech economy up the ladder with the region’s telecoms sector now hitting $63.1 trillion.
The huge revenue accrues from activities in the Fintechs, E-commerce and Digital Market places which contribute 80 per cent growth annually.
The region is also bolstered by $30 billion injected annually, into the region’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), through Digital Economy activities.
Looking at the statistics by the West African Telecom Regulatory Association (WATRA), it’s not difficult to see why the region’s telecom fortune is looking up.
WATRA is an association of regulators in the sub-region of West Africa, with a responsibility to improve telecoms service delivery in West Africa, through collaboration.
As at 2024, the region has over 400 million subscribers. The growth rate of mobile penetration is 21 per cent with over 90 per cent of internet subscriptions.
Also, there was an increase of 21 per cent in 2019 but in 2023, it rose astronomically to 60 per cent.
These are occasioned by telecoms investments and infrastructural development across the region, which Nigeria headlines.
The telecoms sector contributes 77 per cent to regional GDP, and 5G technology which has been launched in Nigeria, Ghana and in a few other West African countries, are key drivers of this impressive growth.
Latching on these, WATRA says it has initiated a few integrated regulatory policies which will help deepen growth, broaden infrastructure and expand the regional marketplace.
Although not a regulator, WATRA believes that regional integration, reduced cost of data and improved connectivity services will go a long way in sustaining these growth strides.
According to the Executive Secretary of the association, Aliyu Aboki, WATRA is working collectively to enhance connectivity and reduce cost of connectivity from the various submarine cables that have landed on the shores of West African countries. We are also working to improve interconnectivity of infrastructure companies. Infrastructure companies should be able to interconnect within West Africa, instead of allowing our data to first travel to Europe before returning to Africa. We need more of the West African data to be hosted in data centres located in West Africa and not in Europe in order to save cost.
Our priority is to increase regional connectivity, reduce cost of data and enhance access to spectrum.
As an umbrella body of all telecoms regulatory authorities in West Africa, WATRA said it has facilitated the achievements of individual regulatory bodies, through support and collaboration. Our support has led to increase in telecoms investments in the regions. We work with the individual regulators to enhance competition and to streamline their processes, and through collaboration, WARTRA has added value to the growth of digital economy in the regions.
