The Executive Secretary of the West Africa Telecommunications Regulators Assembly (WATRA), Mr. Aliyu Yusuf Aboki, has reiterated the Assembly’s commitment to fostering a harmonised digital policy and regulatory environment across West Africa.
Speaking at the third meeting of WATRA’s Working Groups in Accra, Ghana, Mr. Aboki stated that uniform regulation across the region is crucial for attracting investment, stimulating innovation, and driving inclusive growth in the digital economy. He noted that creating a coherent and unified digital market would make West Africa more attractive to regional and global investors.
Hosted by Ghana’s National Communications Authority, the four-day summit convened telecom regulators, digital policy experts, private sector players, and development partners. Discussions focused on developing a harmonised regional framework in consumer protection, infrastructure development, and cybersecurity. With the ECOWAS region comprising over 400 million people, Mr. Aboki argued that regulatory alignment would help transform fragmented national markets into one large, investable region, reducing compliance costs and enabling companies to scale efficiently across borders.
Mr. Aboki emphasised the strategic roles of WATRA’s Working Groups, which are crafting adaptable regional standards. The Consumer Access and Experience group is working to strengthen user trust and equitable service delivery; the Infrastructure Development group is promoting harmonised policies for broadband expansion; while the Cybersecurity group is focused on establishing shared security protocols to safeguard users and digital trade. These technical efforts, he said, are producing home-grown, actionable solutions to be tailored by individual member states.
Highlighting the telecom industry’s critical role in the region’s economy, Mr. Aboki pointed to its contribution of over 15% to Nigeria’s GDP and the presence of more than 250 million mobile subscribers in the region. He said that the absence of unified regulation continues to limit regional integration and that the creation of a Single Digital Market could unlock billions in economic value. The Accra meeting is expected to produce final recommendations that will be adopted at WATRA’s upcoming Conference of Regulators, with Ghana’s acting NCA Director-General, Edmund Fianko, affirming strong support for the harmonisation agenda.