Last week’s agreement between Togo and Burkina Faso to end roaming charges for incoming calls comes into effect at the end of this month. But is it really part of a growing wave of roaming initiatives across West Africa?
Togo and Burkina Faso signed the agreement early last week with a start date of 30 May. Togo’s telecoms regulator ARCEP said at the time that the implementation of this protocol will lead to a significant drop in voice, SMS and internet charges for Togolese travellers visiting Burkina Faso and vice versa.
In fact travellers from either country will be able to receive calls for free during the first 30 days of their stay. Outgoing calls to local numbers in the host country will also be capped at the same rate charged for domestic calls on that network.
The deal is part of a growing wave of roaming initiatives across West Africa, backed by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which sees it as a key step toward deeper digital and economic integration. It first expressed its support for the concept in 2017.
Recent years have seen deals between Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and The Gambia and Ghana, Benin and Togo. Benin and Togo launched their own free roaming agreement on January 1, 2024.
Early this year, as we reported at the time, the governments of Liberia, The Gambia and Sierra Leone signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) aimed at reducing telecommunications costs through improved roaming services. The Liberia–Sierra Leone free roaming service is set to launch today, while the Liberia–Gambia deal will take effect on July 1.
Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso signed a roaming deal in November 2024. Mali has also been working on bilateral arrangements with Benin and Togo. Togo is in talks with Niger, while Côte d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso signed a deal in 2023, a year that also saw a Senegal-Mauritania deal.
As the Ecofin news agency points out, however, most of these deals are local; there does not appear to be a unified regional approach. It also suggests that challenges remain, including the lack of direct connections between operators, high interconnection fees and persistent fraud.
