Anthony Omoshie from WATRA shares insights on the regulator’s operations towards digital transformation
07 April 2025
Anthony Omoshie, IT Specialist & Facilities Management Support Consultant at West Africa Telecommunications Regulators Assembly (WATRA | ARTAO), shared some insights on regional telecommunications regulation following the IPRIS Africa round in Namibia. He highlighted the significance of fostering a better telecommunications ecosystem and regional cooperation among member states.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
iPRIS: Please introduce yourself and what you do at WATRA.
Anthony Omoshie: I am Anthony Omoshie, the IT specialist and Facilities Management Consultant at WATRA Secretariat in Abuja, Nigeria. I handle the technical and utilities issues related to the Secretariat in Abuja. That is my core function, and I assist in every other department to the best of my abilities.
iPRIS: From WATRA’s standpoint, what were the most important results or discussions from the IPRIS Africa round in Namibia? Do these align with WATRA's objectives for regional regulatory cooperation?
Anthony Omoshie: There were a few key takeaways from Namibia, 2024C round, where WATRA members NCA Ghana, and LTA Liberia were present. It is clear from the discussions held that there is a drive towards ensuring a better ecosystem for telecommunications within their respective jurisdictions. The planned activities align with their change initiatives based on the activities and discussions carried out. There will be benefits for the citizens of West Africa as continuous efforts from each member state will affect the sub-region's economy.
As a regional organisation, we have a lot of emphasis on the importance of the iPRIS program. And we're immensely grateful to SPIDER for their support and the EU for funding the project through SIDA.
It was also interesting to see the issues arising from the various markets and how they can be politically addressed, based on past experiences with other members who participated in the same and previous programs before IPRIS was launched. I'm also happy to support and contribute in any way I can to ensure that each of the NRAS achieves what they are set out to achieve regarding their change initiatives.
iPRIS: Regulatory fragmentation is among the primary issues facing regulation in Sub-Saharan Africa. What activities does WATRA undertake to combat these issues and ensure regulatory harmonisation among its members?
Anthony Omoshie: Regulatory fragmentation is challenging, especially when diverse issues contribute to the same problem. We have different markets, structures, and growth levels among WATRA members. There’s also diversity in language.
One of WATRA's objectives as a regional entity is to tackle this issue innovatively. All the countries have their own priorities and national interests. The IPRIS program was designed to address the challenges we faced in getting members to participate, since the language barrier proved to be a problem. The initial SPIDER program, ITP, was all English, but IPRIS has three language categories: English, French, and Portuguese.
The best way for WATRA to tackle the problem of regulatory fragmentation was to foster collaboration amongst our members. So the innovative approach we came up with, in addition to the other previous steps, was the recent establishment of our working groups following our strategic plan 2022-2025, which was ratified in December of 2022. Working groups were established to tackle the critical issues and challenges within the sector.
The best way to ensure that regulatory frameworks are harmonised is by providing a platform where all members can actively share their concerns and views on various sector subjects and discuss how best to solve such problems.
In 2024, after our 21st AGM in Freetown, One of the challenges that came up was the issue of non-resistance, orbit services at Non-Geostationary Orbit (NGSO), which came up as a general issue that cut across the board for all members, how to approach the providers of such services, and how to ensure that it doesn't hurt their economy. It stemmed from a general concern, and because of that, an ad hoc working group was established. It was mandated that solutions be provided for all members to leverage an approach to this issue within the sub-region.
The group delivered our best WATRA NGSO framework on our website. It has guided all members to engage with NGSO service providers and operators and how they can look to the best of their abilities. It has also allowed them to localise within their jurisdictions, allowing them to engage such players in the industry effectively. The best way to address this issue of regulatory fragmentation is to promote collaboration, and we are promoting that collaboration through our working groups.
iPRIS: Are there any cross-border challenges WATRA faces in pursuing spectrum allocation and coordinating inter-country cooperation?
Anthony Omoshie: At a regional level, there haven't been such challenges regarding spectrum allocation. However, some of these challenges may exist at the national level and have already been addressed.
When it comes to spectrum allocation and spectrum planning, it is advised, especially within the ITU framework, that frequency sharing and cross-border coordination between neighbouring countries should be coordinated to ensure that each respective jurisdiction is respected.
We can reference NCA Ghana's current change initiative, consumer education awareness on preventing automatic problems. One of their findings revealed an issue with the profile zone that operators in neighbouring countries are not respecting.
They now have a team with the NCA responsible for this, and the same applies to their neighbours, Côte d'Ivoire, Togo, and Burkina Faso. However, that has not been discussed at the regional level. If that doesn't work out, the next line of action will be to bring it up on a platform like the WATRA AGM, which is coming up in the next few days. Other than that, cross-border engagement between people is good.
iPRIS: Telecom regulation faces shifts due to AI and new technologies. How does Watra support member countries to ensure they are ready for such technological shifts?
Anthony Omoshie: We know the impact that AI and other emerging technologies bring to the sector, and how all regulators in West Africa are affected.
I will borrow Hans's words from our session on strategic foresight in Namibia. You need to have a good level of strategic foresight to be ahead of the market and its advancements. One of WATRA's mandates is to provide capacity-building workshops and programs for our members to stay up-to-date with market trends and the sector as a whole.
From our 21st AGM in Freetown last year, the first day featured a workshop on AI and big data analytics, as well as how regulatory tools need to be updated to meet the standards that AI and other investment technologies bring. WATRA’s role is to provide a capacity-building program for our members in key areas of concern within the sector. There is no doubt that AI is a trending area of concern, and the plan is to continue organising such capacity-building workshops for our members to ensure they stay up to date.
To reiterate, we provide a platform where members can come together at the regional level and build their capacity on subjects and trending matters related to the telecommunications sector in West Africa.
iPRIS is coordinated and implemented by SPIDER in strategic and technical partnership with the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority (PTS) and the Luxembourg Regulatory Institute (ILR).
iPRIS is funded by the European Union, Sweden, and Luxembourg as part of the Team Europe Initiative “D4D for Digital Economy and Society in Sub-Saharan Africa” (Code: 001).
