Africa marches to world radio conference in one bloc

By Prince Osuagwu & Laide Akinboade

Mr Labaran Maku, Communications Minister

At the end of the 1st African Group Preparatory meeting for next year’s World Radio Communications Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, last week in Abuja, it was obvious that Africa would march to the conference clutching some of the important requests that can engender more growth in the continent with one voice and unanimous support.

Although detailed points of the communique from the meeting are yet to be made public, Hi-Tech however gathered that important issues ranging from allowing the continent to embrace new technologies and develop them at its own pace; get more frequencies and freedom to manage them among others are some of the demands the continent would make at the conference.

The continent would also seek the attention of the world to the reality that the level of appreciation and application of new technologies in Africa was even faster than most continents of the world.

World Radiocommunication Conference, WRC, is organized by the International Telecommunications Union, ITU, to review and as necessary, revise the Radio Regulations, the international treaty governing the use of the radio-frequency spectrum and the geostationary-satellite and non-geostationary-satellite orbits. It is held every three to four years.

Prior to 1993, what is known today as WRC was called the World administrative radio conference WARC. However at an Additional Plenipotentiary Conference in Geneva in 1992, the ITU was restructured and later conferences became the WRC.

At the preparatory meeting in Abuja almost all countries in Africa including Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Cameroun, South Africa, Algeria among a host of others were represented.

Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Communications, Mr Labaran Maku , Executive Vice Chairman of Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, Dr Eugene Juwah and the Director General of Nigerian Broadcasting Commission, NBC Engr Yomi Bolarinwa made presentations to raise the confidence of participants that Nigeria was right behind decisions to be arrived at after the meeting.

Although, the meeting was coming late judging from when other continents started their own preparations, a fact Maku robbed in during his presentation, there were high hopes that Africa would be the cynosure of eyes and attention at the meeting come next year.

Meanwhile, addressing delegates at the meeting, Nigeria’s communications Minister Mr Lebaran Maku urged the participants to arm themselves with the realisation that telecommunication was major means of moving economy forward, but decried that Africa would be late in such preparations even when it was still lagging behind in terms of spectrum resources.

The minister urged the delegates to come up with measures that would encourage the development of the telecom sector across the continent.

“Telecommunication is central to progress in the region of Africa. This is evident both in socio-economic and political fields, and provide the vital medium for sharing common interests and exchange of information about our different developmental activities,” he said.

He added that telecom sector could contribute not only to the free trade and economic development but also play major role in promoting peace, security, stability and integration of the region.

For him, I am not happy that Africa’s preparatory meeting was holding after other regions have completed theirs. By acting late, we are lagging behind. But you must come up with common position ahead of the world conference in Switzerland”

The Executive Vice Chairman of Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Eugene Juwah, in his welcome address said the importance of the Radio Frequency spectrum cannot be over emphasised particularly in Africa.

He said that Nigeria has a total of 86 million active subscribers, out of which less than 500 thousand were wireline. “This trend is the same in every country in Africa and underlies why every effort should be expended to ensure that the resource receives the effective management it deserves to facilitate harmonious coexistence within and across national borders”.

Juwah urged the delegates to consider the interest of Africa first in their considerations, saying that national considerations should be sheathed in the interest of the common good of the continent.

Also speaking, the Director General of National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Engr. Yomi Bolarinwa noted that African continent was grappling with many challenges in the area of communication.

He listed some of the challenges to include: problem of migrating to digital terrestrial broadcasting; regulatory issues, convergence issues; as well as dependence on foreigner countries for the hardware used in the industry.

Bolarinwa appealed to relevant authorities in the various administrations in the continent to appreciate the need for consistency in representation. “Changing representatives to every meeting makes it difficult for continuity,” he said.

He urged the delegates to ensure that no decision that would be taken in next year’s conference in Switzerland to the detriment of Africa.