By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
The Commonwealth ICT Forum has ended in Freetown paving the way for Sierra Leone to draw up its own policy on Broadband. The three days international conference brought together industry experts from home and abroad to talk on challenges, lessons and solutions for modern-day internet usage.
The Director General of the National Telecommunication Commission (NATCOM), Maxwell Massaquoi, said after the conference that he was delighted with the outcome. He said the conference gave the country a clear path forward in forming its own policy on broadband internet.
“We are going to put our heads together as a responsible government, what we have learnt from our brothers, best practices and put together a national broadband strategy,” Massaquoi told Politico.
“We are going to use that as a bedrock to make sure that we permeate every community in this country with broadband technology within the next five years,” he added.
This conference was preceded by a consultative workshop which laid a road map for the country’s comprehensive ICT policy.
The Minister of Information and Communication, Mohamed Rahman Sawaray, told Politico immediately after the conference that the combination of knowledge from the conference and the workshop has given Sierra Leone a clear insight on the road ahead.
“The national consultative workshop brought together various stakeholders from all sectors of society. We were able to elicit their views and it was a very enriching experience. We have a clear idea now of what we want, what Sierra Leoneans want. This conference just cemented it all with international experience, best practices from other countries that have gone through this track. We could not have asked for more as a country,” Swaray explained.
The three days conference featured testimonies from local and international experts in the ICT industry, vis-a-vis successes, challenges and solutions to the complex problems related to internet, connectivity and other related issues.
On the opening day of the conference, the Acting Secretary General of the Commonwealth Telecommunication Organization, Gisa Fuatai Purcell, praised the Sierra Leone government’s commitment to taking the country to the modern trend of ICT development.
“For any country to move ahead, we need to get access for everybody. We need to develop broadband for our people all over the country, so we can provide coverage for everyone. This conference signifies the commitment of the government of Sierra Leone to move its people to where the rest of the world is,” she said.
Despite the experiences Sierra Leone learnt from the conference, there is no time frame yet on a comprehensive policy. Swaray said the country still need to follow up on some areas and observe international best practices in other countries. However, the plan for 100% broadband connectivity in Sierra Leone is ambitious.
Massaqoui said the country already have some resources which it will use to roll out some projects in the coming months, especially in rural areas.
“It may sound ambitious, but guess what, we can always do it. We have over 200 kilo meters of terrestrial fiber already in the ground, deployed. We have access to the Ace cable. This government has recently gone out and negotiated with China Exim Bank. We are going to see Huawei come in with additional fiber,” he said.
He added: “It might be ambitious, but we already know we are getting there. We already have access to some of the funds we need to deploy such a technology.”
Despite increase in data usage across the world, internet connectivity is still a major challenge in countries like Sierra Leone. The national connectivity rate, according to NATCOM, is currently at 13.5%
“I have seen some statistics that shows Sierra Leone we only have 450,000 subscribers on Facebook. We need to increase that. I believe this government will succeed in doing that. We have all the necessary modalities in place,” said Massaquoi.
In addition to Massaqoui’s guarantee, Swaray also said there are plans in motion now to get mobile operators and government to contribute to the Universal Access Fund which will invest in rural connectivity.
“Already a lot is happening. We have been able to set up the Universal Access Development Fund. The legal instrument is now being drafted by the Attorney General’s Office for onward submission to parliament for ratification. We have already agreed with the mobile operators as to what they will contribute to that fund. We will also look for alternative ways to contribute to the fund. Already we are in the process of doing a gap analysis to inform us as to where there are challenges with connectivity,” the Minister said.
To speed up this proposed progress, the telecommunications regulator said they are leveraging on the necessity of Private Public Partnership to increase connectivity across the rural areas.
“This government is a proponent of Public Private Partnership. In fact, we are in negotiation with a vendor. We are going to embark on a prototype product. We are going to work with the Universal Access Fund to bring communication to the underserved and to certain rural areas,” said Massaquoi.
© 2019 Politico Online
