The President of the National Assembly, Seini Oumarou chaired, this Tuesday, February 28, 2023, the official opening ceremony of the work of the first relocated meeting for the year 2023, in the hemicycle of the National Assembly, under the theme ”Telecommunications as a tool for economic integration: the need to achieve homogeneous roaming in ECOWAS Member States”.
It was in the presence of the President of the ECOWAS Parliament Dr. Sidie Mohamed Tunis, parliamentarians from the ECOWAS member countries, members of the government of Niger, as well as several personalities. This work will take place from February 28 to March 4, 2023.
Thus, in his opening speech, the President of the National Assembly Seini Oumarou, following having welcomed and thanked the audience, rejoiced at the confidence placed in Niger once once more by the parliamentarians for host this meeting of great importance. At the same time, the head of the parliament of Niger, welcomes the fact that this meeting focuses on a relevant subject that is the roaming of telephone communications in the ECOWAS area.
“This subject is all the more relevant as the communication systems using new technologies which constitute real support measures for all our development efforts and above all vectors, par excellence, of the integration of our space” a- he developed.
Also, he continues, “if we want to make the most of the digital economy within our community, we must prevent space and borders from becoming obstacles to free communication. Both Administrations and economic operations should be able to ensure the continuity of their communications from one locality to another, from one country to another. We would therefore have to ensure that an effective roaming system is ensured first, in each of our countries and then across our borders”.
The President of the National Assembly also insisted on the fact that at the inter-community level, the roaming system must be continuous, reliable and without additional cost, like current practices in other economic communities. Seizing the opportunity, he recalled that from 1975 to today, despite the roughness of the path, ECOWAS has enjoyed great success due to its progress which has led its Member States towards more convergence. In closing his remarks, Mr. Seini Oumarou, declared that Niger will contribute to measuring the relevance of this issue.
In taking the floor, the chairman of the joint committee of the ECOWAS parliament, Dr Sidie Mohamed Tunis, indicated that in a study on the adoption of mobile internet in West Africa, conducted by the institute of Bonn labor economy in 2021, it was found that the widespread adoption and use of digital technologies has multiple potential for the sub-region. According to the explanation he had to provide, in the same year of 2021, mobile technologies and services generated around 8% of sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP, or nearly $140 billion in economic value added. Still according to him, the mobile ecosystem has also supported more than 3.2 million jobs and contributed substantially to the financing of the public sector to the tune of 16 billion dollars raised thanks to taxes on the said sector. Dr Sidie Mohamed pointed out that according to projections, by 2025, the contribution of mobile will increase by 65 billion dollars to reach nearly 155 billion, with countries in the sub-region benefiting more from improvements in productivity and efficiency. brought by the increase in subscriptions to mobile services.
Previously, other speeches were made during the ceremony by the co-chair of the commission, the head of the delegation of Nigerien deputies to parliament as well as the representative of the president of the ECOWAS commission.
Par Balkiss Ibrahim
