Johannesburg, August 15, 2013 – Countries in the west and central African regions will experience lower costs towards their broadband use. This is the ultimate intention of  a  study commissioned  by  the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, NEPAD Agency. Detecon International  is  the  ICT consultant  firm  selected  to  conduct  the  study,  design  networks  and  develop  business plans expected to  attract  investments  in  broadband in the  two  regions.

The outcomes  of  this  consultancy will  be  an  important milestone  in the  development  of  the  regional broadband backbones that  will  lead  to improved connectivity and broadband services in 25 countries in West African and Central African States.

It highlights that   reduction  of  communication  costs  will  have  a  significant  impact  on  services  costs  in  these  regions and  as such  make  West  and  Central Africa  regions  more attractive for  investors. The  realisation  of  those  regional  networks  will  also  be  an  important  milestone  in  continental  integration  and  will  contribute  to  intra-African  trade  expansion.

To put into effect key aspects of this exercise NEPAD and Detecon this week signed a consultancy agreement.  NEPAD’s Director of Corporate Services Bankole Adeoye, said at the signing ceremony in Johannesburg that the speedy development of broadband infrastructure is key to Africa’s socio-economic development and NEPAD would ensure follow up on the implementation of ICT regional projects.

The study falls in line with the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA). The grants for project running costs and consultancy were provided respectively by French Development Agency (AFD) and the European Union (EU’s) Infrastructure Trust Fund (ITF).

The consultancy is conducted in partnership with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS).

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For more detail contact:

Maureen Nkandu

NEPAD Communications

Phone: +27 112563626, +27837044502

Email: maureenn@nepad.org