Telecommunications leaders across Africa have called for stronger collaboration, evidence-based regulator frameworks to address common sector challenges.
These collaboration includes satellite integration, artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity, and infrastructure resilience across continent.
Opening the session themed “Building Africa’s Network Intelligence Ecosystem for Evidence-Based Regulation,” the Executive Vice Chairman. EVC, of the NCC, Dr. Aminu Maida noted that despite differing market sizes and legal structures, African regulators face nearly identical operational realities.
“Very often, the challenge that one regulator is trying to solve has already been encountered in one form or another by a colleague elsewhere on the continent. The question really is how we make that exchange of experience more deliberate, more systematic, and more useful to our institutions.”
Maida highlighted that informal conversations among regulators rapidly converge on pressing issues such as infrastructure resilience, investment, affordability, satellite services, AI, and emerging technologies that routinely test legacy rules. He encouraged delegates to engage in candid discussions regarding successes, failures, and opportunities for shared learning to avoid duplicating effort in isolation.
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Addressing delegates on the shift toward advanced analytics, Rimini Makama, Executive Commissioner for Stakeholder Management at the NCC, stressed that traditional regulatory frameworks built for simpler times can no longer keep pace with rapid developments in broadband, cloud computing, and digital public infrastructure.
According to her, “regulatory models designed for a simpler telecommunications environment are no longer sufficient to address today’s increasingly dynamic digital ecosystem.”
Makama stressed that although regulators now possess more technical, market, and consumer data than ever before, the real challenge lies in transforming that information into sound regulatory decisions that benefit consumers and industry alike.
She added that the session was designed to achieve three objectives: sharing practical lessons from the NCC’s experience, identifying common challenges among regulators across Africa, and exploring opportunities for greater collaboration among ATU member states.
Highlighting practical operational achievements, the Director General of the Regional African Satellite Communications Organization, RASCOM, Timothy Ashong commended Nigeria’s transparent handling of network disruptions. He pointed to real-time public tracking of fibre optic cuts as a model for bringing regulation closer to citizens.
According to Ashong, making such information publicly available enhances transparency, enables faster responses to network disruptions, and demonstrates a regulatory approach that prioritises citizens’ interests.
He urged other African countries to adopt similar systems, arguing that regulation should increasingly move closer to the people by providing timely information and improving accountability.
He reaffirmed RASCOM’s readiness to work with African governments, regulators, and industry stakeholders to strengthen connectivity across the continent and advance Africa’s broader digital development objectives.
