If European Union can cut roaming fees, African Union should be able to do the same, right? Well, it’s not as easy as it may sound since EU countries are mostly rich and when there’s money, things are easier to manage.
Alas that didn’t stop African Union from criticizing the high cost of mobile roaming between African countries. The African Union Commission’s ICT Policy Officer, Auguste Yankey, said that the high costs were affecting economic growth in the continent, and they are working with national regulators to cut those costs.
Information Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i noted that the need for cross border trade makes reduction of Africa’s roaming cost imperative. “In our view the best way to find the reasonable cost for the roaming is to conduct a continent wide study,” he said, while urging African countries to explore the use of market incentives that will lead to a significant reduction in the price of mobile roaming.
It only makes sense to cut roaming costs but once again, Africa is different than the EU. Still, we hope they’ll manage to pull this off to the benefit of the people…