Abuja, 2 May 2019. The President of the Commission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Jean-Claude Kassi Brou, tasked the regional body to prepare well ahead of the 2019 edition of the World Radiocommunication Conference slated for Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, from 28 October to 22 November 2019.

Speaking through the ECOWAS Commissioner for Telecommunications and Information Technology, Dr Zouli Bonkoungou, at the 3rd preparatory meeting of the region recently held in Abuja, Nigeria, Mr Brou urged ECOWAS Member States’ authorities to finalise the outcomes of past working group and preparatory meetings for the conference.

The purpose of the exercise, he noted, is to finalise their common positions for the presentation of these outcomes at the final preparatory meeting of the African Telecommunications Union, and make contributions towards a common African position.

“With all the experts present at this meeting, I am very optimistic that West Africa’s position will have a positive impact on radio spectrum management at African or even international level,” stated Dr Zouli Bonkoungou.

The meeting was an opportunity for participants to discuss the contributions of ECOWAS Member States, take stock of the 2nd preparatory meeting and harmonise positions on the agenda of the Sharm-El-Sheikh conference.

The participants considered, among other things, issues related to aeronautical, maritime and rail transport; access to broadband applications from high-altitude platform stations; and mega-constellation satellites.

In closing the meeting, the Director of Digital Economy and Posts of the ECOWAS Commission, Dr Raphaël Koffi, welcomed the recommendations made by participants.

We have taken a decisive step by adopting common positions, he concluded.

As well as the ECOWAS Commission and Member States, representatives of several organisations and companies in the mobile and Internet sectors took part in the meeting.