Africa Must Speak With One Voice On Global Telecom Issues, NCC Tells ATU
By Stella Enenche, Abuja
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has called on African countries to deepen collaboration and present a united position on key telecommunications and digital economy issues, saying the continent would wield greater influence in global policy decisions by speaking with one voice.
The call came on Monday at the opening of the Conference Preparatory Committee (CP-26) of the 7th Ordinary Session of the African Telecommunication Union (ATU) Conference of Plenipotentiaries in Abuja.
Nigeria also secured a key leadership position with the election of the NCC’s Director of Internal Audit, Stella Erebor, as Chairperson of the preparatory committee.
Speaking at the event, the Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Dr. Aminu Maida, said Nigeria was honoured to host the strategic gathering, which is expected to shape Africa’s collective position ahead of the ATU Conference of Plenipotentiaries and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Plenipotentiary Conference scheduled for November in Doha, Qatar.
“Nigeria is proud to host this gathering and proud of what it represents—Africa’s determination to prepare together and to speak with greater coherence on the issues shaping the future of telecommunications and the digital economy,” Maida said.
He stressed that the preparatory committee was central to Africa’s participation in international telecommunications governance, describing it as the platform where consensus is built before major global engagements.
According to him, delegates will review the ATU’s activities between 2023 and 2026 and prepare resolutions, decisions and recommendations for adoption at the ATU Conference of Plenipotentiaries later this week.The committee will also finalise Africa’s preparations for the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference.
“These are related but distinct processes. CPL-26 will determine the direction and priorities of our continental union, while ITU PP-26 will determine the direction, leadership and priorities of the global union.
“Our work here must serve both purposes clearly, strengthening the ATU as Africa’s coordinating institution while ensuring that Africa is well prepared to participate effectively at the ITU,” he said.
Maida noted that emerging issues such as spectrum harmonisation, artificial intelligence governance, data protection, universal connectivity and cybersecurity require coordinated regulatory responses across the continent.
“The issues before us are increasingly complex and interconnected. No administration can address these challenges effectively in isolation. Our regulatory cooperation must therefore become more continuous, more technical and more institutionalised,” he added.
Speaking after her election, Erebor said the preparatory committee would harmonise documents and proposals for consideration by the Conference of Plenipotentiaries, which begins later in the week.
She explained that the committee would review the union’s achievements over the last four years and ensure African countries align their positions before engaging at the global level.
“The ATU has been working in the past four years. It’s a four-year cycle. In this conference, all the work that the ATU has done to advance telecommunications in Africa and coordinate African countries towards their participation in the ITU is brought together so that Africa speaks with one voice,” she said.
“It is very important when Africa tables all its issues as one on the international front. It gets more traction than when each country is fighting its own battles in silos.”
Also speaking, the Secretary-General of the African Telecommunication Union, John Omo, urged delegates to carefully scrutinise all proposals before forwarding them to the plenipotentiary conference.
“Our responsibility is therefore to process every document and proposal that will be brought before the CPL vigilantly and to resolve what can be resolved at this level and present to the conference recommendations that are as much as possible agreed amongst ourselves,” Omo said.
He added that the meeting builds on the collaboration established since the union’s last plenipotentiary conference in Algiers, expressing confidence that the Abuja deliberations would further strengthen Africa’s collective voice in global telecommunications policy.
