|
GSM Africa Strategic Conference 2006 International Conference Centre [ICC], Abuja, March 2006 |
|
Communiqué Issued by the GSM Consultative Forum of Nigeria
The GSM Africa Conference 2006 held 27 – 29 March 2006 at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, Nigeria. The conference attracted participation from Governments and Regulators, Policy and Law Makers, Operators and Service Providers, Equipment manufacturers and Vendors, Financial Institutions and Development Partners, in and outside Africa.
The Conference presentations and discussions had the following thrust:
a. Penetration and bridging the digital divide;
b. Improving the inflow of direct investments into the African continent;
c. Development of infrastructure to achieve higher quality of service, and the provision of converged services;
d. Achievement of seamless cross-border interconnection;
e. Better policy and regulation framework to achieve growth.
The Conference;
Notes
- That since the advent of GSM in Africa in the 1990s, it has experienced phenomenal growth in the continent, surpassing fixed line penetration and rapidly rising to 120 million subscribers as of 2006;
- That in view of the lack of adequate infrastructure in most African countries, mobile technology is the only option open to Africans to bridge the digital divide;
Recognises
- The important role that GSM has played in the emergence of the telecommunications sector as a major engine of economic development in the continent;
Recognises further
- That GSM has succeeded in Africa despite numerous and tough challenges in the regulatory and operating environment.
Acknowledges
- The potentials of GSM to provide ubiquitous telephony services in the continent and realise universal access objectives;
- That the continued growth and development of GSM is in the overall interest of the countries of Africa;
Recommends
- The active participation of all stakeholders – Governments and Regulators, Operators and Service Providers, Equipment Manufacturers and Vendors, Investors and Financial Institutions as well as Industry Bodies and Development Partners – to bring about the much needed development.
Invites Governments in Africa to
To adopt policy options and undertake affirmative action that remove bottlenecks in the operating environment and give further impetus to GSM development in their respective countries. Governments should undertake to:
Eliminate the incidence of multiple regulation of the same aspects of GSM operations by various tiers or agencies of Government;
- Eliminate multiple taxation, i.e. fees, levies, charges, etc imposed by various tiers or agencies of Government on the same aspects of GSM operations;
- Reduce import duties on telecommunications equipment and also provide other fiscal incentives that will bring about reduction in the total cost of ownership and drive further penetration of GSM services to the lower segment of the market;
- Reduce import duties as a means of shoring up support for the realisation of the GSM Association Emerging Market Handset (EMH) initiative for low-end handsets for needed penetration of the lower segment of the market;
- Ensure that fees, charges, levies, etc charged by tiers or agencies of Government are objective and justifiable and reflect a reasonable administrative cost of providing the service or facility;
- Provide or enable the provision at reasonable cost of relevant public infrastructure such as electricity or otherwise ensure that incentives are granted for their self-provision by the GSM operatives;
- Streamline the process of planning authorisations to ensure expeditious site approvals to operators to meet coverage and capacity expansion requirements;
Invites Regulators in Africa to
Adopt forward looking regulatory initiatives for GSM development in Africa, thus
- Undertake consultation with all stakeholders (operatives and consumers, etc) in order to accommodate various concerns and implement the most appropriate regulatory intervention;
- Enact Consultation and Rule-making procedures and processes to guide stakeholder engagement and ensure regulatory certainty;
- Ensure that fees, charges, levies, etc charged are objective and justifiable. Such charges should reflect a reasonable administrative cost of providing the service or facility or the economic opportunity of the concessions so granted, as opposed to charges based on subjective perceptions of the returns of the operators;
Foster transparency in their operations to bolster operator and investor confidence;
Invites GSM Operatives in Africa to
- Provide innovative services and payment methods that meet the requirements and financial capacity of the various segments of the market;
- Provide services in a manner that is not detrimental to the environment and are in consonance with operative environmental laws and regulations;
- Undertake Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) with relevant stakeholder involvement to promote mutually beneficial relationships for overall socio-economic development of the society. This will also enhance customer loyalty;
- Empower local people and communities to be active participants in the value delivery chain of GSM operations;
- Adopt Unified Inter-operator tariffs (IOT), commencing with ECOWAS common tariffs and bilateral discounting on existing IOT;
- Provide cross border connectivity to improve access to telecommunications and enhance socio-economic integration of the region;
- Register with the GSMA Infocentre Fraud Committee for material information on fraud related developments for the protection of their networks and subscribers;
- Commit to joint ownership and implementation of Equipment Identity Register (EIR) at the national level and subsequent continental implementation;
- Establish Joint Credit Rating Information Index to assist in credit profiling of post-paid subscribers to guard against migrant bad debtors;
- Provide accurate statistical information about the network and operations to Regulatory Authorities and Government to support national planning;
Invites Industry Associations and Development Partners in Africa to
- Establish a settlements/Data and financial clearing house that will assist African operators to reconcile their roaming, billing, collection of debts and facilitate cross border connectivity at reduced rate.
Invites Equipment Manufacturers and Vendors in Africa to
- Provide vendor financing (hard loans) and other innovative schemes to enable rapid network build;
- Commit to the GSMA EMH initiative to foster penetration into the untapped African markets where handset cost remains a major barrier to service uptake;
- Provide enhanced solutions from project build as well as after-service support for seamless service delivery;
Invites Investors and Financial Institutions in Africa to
- Take advantage of the growth potentials and the success story of profitable GSM ventures in Africa and provide much needed finance for network build and expansion as well as strategic acquisitions, etc;
- Develop innovative financing schemes for operators such as no-recourse funding whereby credit profiling of the operator is not based on guarantees of security taken upfront but on the projected returns of the operator;
Abuja, Nigeria 29 March 2006 |
|
UK EMP Archive |