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East African countries, during a meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, agreed to collectively launch a satellite for regional internet services. The move aims to provide affordable and reliable broadband, addressing the rising demand driven by factors like an expanding middle class and increased data consumption.

East African countries have agreed to pool resources to put in place a jointly-run satellite to provide internet services across the region

The decision was made this Thursday, November 9, in Nairobi, Kenya, during the Joint Ministerial meeting of the ICT Infrastructure Development cluster under the Northern Corridor Integration Projects (NCIPs).

Part of the joint communique released at the conclusion of the meeting states that, “The Ministers agreed to fast track the modalities of establishing a Regional Owned Satellite for communication that will provide high-quality, dependable broadband internet services and broadcasting capabilities.”

The ICT Minister of Uganda, Dr. Chris Baryomunsi, presided over the meeting, which was also attended by the Minister of Kenya, Hon. Eliud Owalo.

Hon. Michael Makuei Lueth, the Minister of ICT for South Sudan, and Mr. Gordon Kalema, the Director General of Digital Transformation for the Ministry of ICT and Innovation of Rwanda, were also present at the event.

East Africa’s consumption of internet data has increased recently due to the region’s expanding middle class, cheaper smartphones, and the rollout of 4G networks.

In the area, mobile data is the most widely used type of internet access, with the most common applications for data being social media, video streaming, and mobile money services.

For many users in the area, the high cost of data is still a problem.

In East Africa, the average cost of a gigabyte of mobile internet in 2022 was 1.34 USD, which was marginally more than in other regions. The average cost of mobile data in Northern Africa was significantly less, at 1.05 USD.

Amb. Richard Kabonero, the Coordinator of Northern Corridor Projects, stated that “The cost of a satellite is about USD 300m which is very expensive for individual countries but as regional we can work together.”

According to Kabonero, “ICT infrastructure and digital skilling will not be helpful if the majority of our people cannot afford smart devices.”

Recently, the One Network Area (ONA) for voice, data, and SMS was operationalized in the East African region. According to Ministers, this “has led to over 900 times traffic increase among the Partner States, as well as cross-border national backbone connections.”

The technical team was instructed by the Ministers to accelerate the Memorandum of Understanding’s implementation in order to foster cooperation in cyber security in order to address the emerging cyber threats. The Ministers also agreed to fast track the establishment of an East African Single Digital Market that will optimize technological efficiency within

Partner States by promoting and supporting start-ups, enabling joint access to capital financing, co-financing research, harmonization of digital infrastructure standards and others. 

With 174 million people living in the EAC, cooperation with global tech companies is anticipated to be possible.

Additionally, the region is putting e-services into place all over the region, such as a framework for exchanging data, complete integration of mobile financial services, and reciprocal access to safe and dependable data.

However, they pointed out that implementation needs to happen more quickly.

The Ministers also hailed the advancements in cross-border broadband interconnectivity, which allow landlocked nations to be connected to underwater cables, and called for a more unified approach to policies that facilitate data management and storage.