Smart Africa and Afriwave Telecom Ghana Limited have announced a partnership whereby they will collaborate in the One Africa Network and Interconnect Clearinghouse initiative, the Data Centre and Cloud Project and the Intra-Africa Connectivity project to advance the continent’s digital transformation.
The partnership will also see Smart Africa and Afriwave Telecom providing training for decision-makers across Africa through the Smart Africa Digital Academy (SADA) vehicle.
Smart Africa is an alliance of 32 African countries, international organisations and global private sector players tasked with defining Africa’s digital agenda. The alliance is empowered by a bold and innovative commitment by African Heads of State to accelerate sustainable socio-economic development on the continent, and usher Africa into the knowledge economy through affordable access to broadband and the use of ICTs. With a vision to create a single digital market in Africa by 2030, the Smart Africa Alliance brings together Heads of State who seek to accelerate digitalisation of the continent and create a common market.
“It is important that we keep Africa’s data within the borders of Africa. In order to achieve this, we must build the capacity to manage and store data on the continent. This partnership with Afriwave Telecom will use African skills to advance Africa’s capacity and digital transformation,” said Mr. Lacina Koné, CEO/Director General, Smart Africa Secretariat.
Afriwave Telecom is a Ghanaian company established in 1998 to provide telecommunications solutions in Ghana and beyond. It is the first and the only licenced Interconnect Clearinghouse (ICH) Operator in Ghana, and currently provides national telecommunications interconnect clearinghouse services to licenced Mobile Network Operators MTN, Vodafone, AirtelTigo and Glo Mobile in Ghana. Afriwave Telecom also provides international telecommunications interconnect clearinghouse services to International Wholesale Carriers who route international telecom traffic into Ghana. The operations of ICH have brought several benefits to the Ghana telecom sector and Afriwave Telecom is looking forward to extending its services to other parts of Africa; and therefore it is ready to collaborate with other stakeholders which have similar ambitions and objectives.
“We have often wondered when traffic within Africa would be routed within the continent’s borders. The establishment of intra-African cross-border links and interconnections will create an enabling environment aimed toward achieving the ultimate objective of keeping all African traffic within Africa,” said Mr. Francis Poku, Deputy CEO-Afriwave Telecom.
ICH services provide a simple, cost-effective and reliable point of interconnection and interconnection links leading to a reduction in interconnect OPEX and CAPEX; efficient handling of new and traditional interconnect requirements; provides a point of interconnection and reduces the entry barrier to other service providers into the telecom interconnect ecosystem; provides independent verification and reconciliation of interconnect billing records to enhance quick clearing and settlements among connecting entities.
Benefits of ICH
ICT is an enabler for the economy. At Afriwave, we are working through the ICH platform to provide a gateway into the telecoms ecosystem; provide financial clearinghouse services to facilitate easier settlement of interconnect fees among MNOs, potential MNOs and VAS providers; and ensure better utilisation of Interconnect links.
Billing and Mediation services
Integrating other sectors of the economy into the telecom ecosystem will enhance transaction speed and therefore stimulate: economic growth; simple, cost-effective and reliable Points of Interconnection (POIs); Routing and Reconciliation of Interconnect Traffic between Service Providers: and Voice, Short Messaging Service (SMS).
