Djibouti rejects Comesa ICT project

Djibouti has rejected the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa's (COMESA) ICT regulatory and policy harmonization program, insisting on continuing its telecommunications sector policies.

The regulatory and policy harmonization program, funded by the European Union, is aimed at removing constraints to ICT usage among COMESA member states in order to promote regional integration.

COMESA Program Manager for Regional ICT Support Program, Claes Rosvall, said last week that COMESA is finding it difficulty to start implementing the program because of the rejection by the government of Djibouti, a COMESA member.

"The program is going smoothly is all other countries in the region with national working groups already set up except Djibouti, which is still refusing to be part of the program because of its monopoly policies in the telecom sector," Rosvall said.

The national working groups oversee the process of policy and regulatory harmonization, to standardize IT laws and regulations in the region.

The E.U. has given COMESA €20 million (US$31.1 million) for the program over a period of three years, although the program will run for 20 years.

The ICT policy harmonization program will also enable COMESA member states to establish IT courts that will settle matters relating to communication disputes and services, and arbitrate among service providers in the telecom sector.

COMESA is setting up a regional telecommunication broadband infrastructure that will connect all national telecom operators in member countries in order to coordinate pricing and network infrastructure and bring down the high cost of communication in the region.

COMESA, which is based in Lusaka, Zambia, is a regional economic bloc that has 21 member countries including Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Botswana, Kenya and Tanzania.