Ghana, Benin to implement free roaming initiative

Benin and Ghana's free-roaming initiative, aimed at reducing communication costs for their citizens traveling between the two countries, will go into effect on July 1, 2024.

Benin's Electronic Communications and Postal Regulatory Authority (ARCEP) and Ghana's National Communications Authority (NCA) signed a memorandum of understanding recently.

"The two parties have agreed that this memorandum will come into effect on July 1, 2024. The operationalization will lead to a significant reduction in tariffs for Beninese and Ghanaian consumers when roaming," ARCEP announced in a statement.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) free roaming initiative will facilitate the implementation of the protocol on the free movement of people, goods, and services, thereby enhancing active citizen participation in regional economic activities.

ECOWAS is a regional political and economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa and its aim is to achieve "collective self-sufficiency" for its member states by creating a single large trade bloc through development of a full economic and trading union.

ECOWAS deals all over

An influx of ECOWAS member states have been either signing deals to connect the underserved or working toward infrastructure upgrades.

Under the ECOWAS initiative, citizens of both Ghana and Benin can now use mobile services in each other's countries without incurring international roaming charges. (Source: Mario Caruso on Unsplash)

Ghana has already signed two ECOWAS free roaming initiatives, which are currently in effect.

Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire successfully implemented the ECOWAS free roaming initiative in February 2024.

In November 2023, Ghana's National Communications Authority and Togo's Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications agreed to establish bilateral roaming services between the two countries.

A month later, submarine fiber optic telecommunications company Pioneer Consulting completed deployment of the Togolese branch of Google's Equiano subsea cable on CSquared Woezon's behalf.

Senegal's government and the Centre Spatial Universitaire de Montpellier (CSUM) partnered with digital platform RIDE Space to launch the country's first satellite, GAINDESAT, also in October 2023.

*Top image source: Image by wirestock on Freepik.

— Matshepo Sehloho, Associate Editor, Connecting Africa