The World Bank Doles $60m to Support Telecom in Togo, Mauritania

Board of executive directors  of the World Bank has approved $30 million each in International Development Association (IDA) credits to support the governments of Mauritania and Togo’s efforts to strengthen telecommunications connectivity through expansion of fiber-optic broadband networks.

The facility is also meant to introduce legal and regulatory reforms to promote robust private sector competition.

The investments are expected to expand access, improve quality and reliability of voice and Internet communications, serve as the backbone for greater private sector investment in ICT services and dramatically drive down costs, a statement issued by the bank noted.

The project is part of the second phase of a $300 million West Africa Regional Communications Infrastructure Programme (WARCIP) that seeks to bridge connectivity gaps between 16 West African countries and with the rest of the world. WARCIP harnesses the resources and dynamism of the private sector through innovative public-private partnerships to enable rapid roll out of infrastructure and expansion of telecoms services, the release said.

“We want to harness Africa’s ongoing ICT revolution to address the development challenges confronting West African states. High capacity, reliable, regional broadband networks can enable communications, commerce and trade in services across borders. It is the cornerstone of developing a modern regional economic zone in West Africa,” said Colin Bruce, World Bank Director for Regional Integration.

Mauritania is mostly a desert country, and its population of 3.5 million is dispersed on an estimated surface area of 1,030,700 square kilometers. The country has a little over 100,000 internet users in the country, that measures up to an average internet penetration of about 3.3 percent. This is one of the lowest internet rates on the continent.

On the other hand, Togo is one of the smallest countries in West Africa, and its population of 6.5 million is spread over 56,600 square kilometers. The country has internet users of almost 400,000, close to about 5.5 percent average usage.

Research indicates that a 10% increase in internet broadband penetration leads to about 1 percent of economic growth. The growth in broadband internet penetration will thus be beneficial to the growth prospects of the West African nations.

Both countries need to improve their connection to the information superhighway and capitalize on the transformative power of ICT to diversify their economies, boost growth rates and accelerate efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.