(PRWEB) May 18, 2017
No less than four ground-breaking Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) were signed on 10 May 2017 by private sector companies and Smart Africa during the TAS 2017 summit. One of these private companies is Global Voice Group (GVG),—the MOU was signed on behalf of the company by Mr Laurent Lamothe, chairman of the Board of GVG. Mr Lamothe has been attending the Summit in this capacity.
The signing of these MOUs was announced by Dr Hamadoun Toure, the Executive Director for Smart Africa, in his closing address to the Transform Africa Summit (TAS) 2017 on Friday, May 12th. Dr Toure announced these MOUs as part of the bold and innovative commitment to accelerate sustainable socio-economic development on the African continent through the provision of affordable access to broadband and the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). The MOU GVG signed with Smart Africa is designed to catapult Africa into a knowledge and information economy, creating employment and improving accountability, efficiency and openness through ICT. This by promoting the introduction of sound regulatory guidelines, processes and advanced technologies in telecommunication. GVG has more than 20 years experience in this field.
As seen in the signing of the four MOUs, ICT will be leveraged through partnerships with the private sector. By signing this MOU, GVG joins important organisations, such as the African Union, NEPAD Agency, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), The World Bank, the African Development Bank, the United Nations Agencies, the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSMA), the African Telecommunications Union and other private sector companies associated with Smart Africa and working to implement its strategies.
One of Smart Africa’s most important strategies is to adopt a harmonised African telecommunications framework – the “One Africa Network” (OAN) – which is expected to give African countries the potential to make significant leaps in development through lower “intra-region” communication costs. The East African Community (EAC) — together with some other countries in the region not part of the EAC—is already well on its way to adopting the one network concept. It is exciting to look forward to a future where the political will displayed by the EAC to connect its people will be replicated right across the African continent.
The One Africa Network agreement was signed by six African presidents and will hopefully see amongst other things:
- broadband across Africa
- the harmonisation of tariffs on mobile voice calls, text messaging and data transmission
- the removal of all mobile telephony barriers
- the reduction in calling rates across the continent
- the scrapping of mobile roaming charges
Speaking about GVG’s Memorandum of Understanding with Smart Africa, Lamothe said: “Global Voice Group (GVG) is extremely proud to be a partner in Smart Africa and to play an integral role in this ground-breaking initiative. We are delighted to be providing technological and strategic services to Smart Africa, assisting the Alliance to combat bypass fraud—GVG has disconnected over 5 billion bypass networks—and acting in an advisory capacity to assist One Africa Network to move forward smoothly. GVG has Africa on the brink of a truly connected future—the beauty about broadband is that it is not constrained by physical borders or distance. One can only imagine the multiple opportunities for growth, inclusion and development that all this development holds…”