The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and other telecoms regulators under the auspices of West African Telecoms Regulators Assembly (WATRA) are set to develop technical and regulatory modalities aimed at combating rising wave of electronic frauds, and standardizing regional roaming tariffs in the sub-region.

The decision was reached at a two-day meeting organised by WATRA in collaboration with the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS), held at Rockview Hotel in Abuja.

The meeting has provided a platform for key participants and stakeholders drawn from telecoms regulators across West Africa countries to deliberate on building a unified market in telecommunications services in West Africa, to combat roaming and cyber-related frauds, and achieve standardization of roaming tariffs among ECOWAS member-states.

Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, Executive Vice Chairman of NCC who is also the Chairman of WATRA while addressing stakeholders at the meeting, underscored the centrality of the meeting by emphasizing that, as businesses move online, the fraudsters are also going digital.

Represented by NCC’s Director, Technical Standards and Network Integrity, Bako Wakil, said, Danbatta said electronic fraud is not just an African or a West African issue but a global phenomenon.

He cited studies that revealed 54 per cent of consumers in the European Union said they are most likely to come across misleading/deceptive or fraudulent advertisements or offers on the Internet.

Danbatta said based on this fact and in order to give West African citizens and businesses the confidence to fully take advantage of the enormous benefits of Information and Communications Technology (ICT), there was a need for regulators to tame and outpace the fraudsters.

The WATRA Chairman said the Assembly has the vision of a ‘Digital ECOWAS’ where improved sub-regional roaming regulation can help to facilitate an economic integration in the region.

“About 75 per cent of trade within ECOWAS is informal, and thus poorly recorded. Therefore, digitising this trade through employing many forms of electronic payments is a significant step towards formalising, governing, and boosting intra-ECOWAS trade activities. Our ambitions are to formalise informal trade, including agricultural commodities as well as boosting intra-regional trade and this requires us to improve collaboration on combating electronic fraud.

“Our citizens, traders and companies will trade better when they can use their telephones to call contacts in other ECOWAS countries and when they can use their data subscriptions at no extra cost while travelling or doing business within the region. So, reducing and eventually eliminating the cost of roaming will also be a very significant contribution towards boosting trade within the region,” Danbatta said.

He expressed satisfaction at the level of collaboration among national regulatory authorities in the sub-region on the one hand; and between WATRA and ECOWAS, to achieve a common goal, on the other hand, saying such synergy is an indicator of progress and internalization of best global practices.

“I am very pleased to see the excellent collaboration and the sharing of workload between the telecommunications body and personnel within ECOWAS and WATRA. Their roles have become complementary and mutually reinforcing-policies legislative frameworks that have been designed at the ECOWAS level, while WATRA does the follow-up work of information-sharing, dialogue and learning dispersal amongst regulatory authorities. It is indeed becoming a well-articulated symphony,” he added.

Executive Secretary of WATRA, Aliyu Aboki, in his address of welcome, emphasized the value of a trusted digital economy to any nation.

Aboki cited a study by Accenture, which concludes that “a trusted digital economy would stimulate 2.8 per cent additional growth for major firms, with the new transactions generated totaling $5.2 trillion of value creation in the economy,” hence, the establishment and operationalization of national and regional anti-fraud committee.

He applauded ECOWAS for “allowing this regional sharing of the enormous task of building Digital ECOWAS to work very well through WATRA, which is a regional manifestation of this collaborative structure”. The WATRA Chief restated that WATRA, as a mechanism for regional regulatory collaboration, will work in unison and ensure its vision is speedily executed by making sure that no nation in the region is left behind.

In his comments at the forum, the Acting Director, Digital Economy and Post, ECOWAS, Dr. Raphael Koffi, explained that e-fraud in the provision of communication services has always been an issue being collectively tackled, but variance in termination rates agreed in commercial roaming agreements has also constituted an obstacle to harmonization of roaming tariffs, hence collaboration between WATRA and ECOWAS is set to achieve.