‘09-WAFICT fuels telecom growth’

The organizers of the West African Information and Communications Technology Congress (WAFICT Congress 2009), said weekend, that this year’s edition has been planned to grow the nation’s telecommunications sector.

A press statement from the organizers made available to ITRealms Online, they reiterated that as the world’s attention turns to Africa for investment in telecommunications and information and communications technology, experts will gather in Lagos, for the 3-day brainstorming on how new technologies could be deployed to fuel telecom growth in the sub-region.

The press statement endorsed by the Editor in chief of IT & Telecom Digest, Mr. Mkpe Abang, indicated that the conference, with the theme “Harnessing New Technologies for Telecom and ICT Growth in West Africa,” will run from June 2-4, alongside the highly successful West African International Telecommunications and Information Communications Technology Exhibition (W.Afri.Tel).

Scheduled to hold at the Ocean View, Victoria Island, Lagos, WAFICT Congress 2009, he said, is being organised by his firm as the sole Nigeria agent for W.Afri.Tel exhibition.

Participants for the conference, he said, will be drawn from operating ICT and telecom companies, GSM and CDMA operators, the banking sector, the legal profession, the oil and gas sector, government agencies, regulatory bodies, consumer advocacy groups, the academia, value added service providers and Internet Service Providers, among others.

Abang also explained that WAFICT 2009 is already getting high level support from across the West African sub-region, as regulators from Ghana, Benin Republic, among others, have confirmed they would join their counterpart in Nigeria, alongside experts to be drawn from across the world, to give impetus to the growing interest in West Africa’s telecom sector.

“WAFICT is the product of the growing demand by the West African ICT industry for a conference that seeks to find solutions to their numerous challenges, which limit the sub-region from fully optimising the new technologies that are being churned out day by day,” he said.

Asserting that as a responsible entity, they have consistently nurtured the African ICT sector for almost 10 years now.

“ IT & Telecom Digest saw the urgent need to bring to the sub-region this conference, especially as the magazine is Sole Agent for W.Afri.Tel, which is West Africa prime ICT event, which began in 2001 and running year after year with attendant growth,” he said.

Equally, he said, that the conference will bring together, experts, regulators, operators, government officials, various professionals and people from the academia from the highest level, as decision makers to find ways of taking West Africa’s telecom sector to the next very important level.

“We’re in an era where technology available today becomes obsolete the next day; and, West Africa is particularly fortunate, because rather than worry about legacy technologies, we are using cutting edge, latest technologies as they are being introduced,” he said.

Pointing out that the challenge therefore is how to ensure that these technologies deliver value for time, money and energies.

“How do we ensure that the return on investment (ROI) for operators in the sub-region continues to be attractive so as to engender more investment? How do we ensure that the technologies deployed here are environmentally friendly and pose no danger to the societies? These are some of the many issues that experts from across the world, will be discussing during WAFICT 2009,” he disclosed.

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