Hon Haddy Nyang Jagne, the National Assembly member (NAM) for Jeshwang constituency, recently returned from an ECOWAS parliamentary committee meeting on communication and information technology held in Freetown, Sierra Leone from July 21 to 25 July.

The theme of the sub-regional parliamentary forum was centred on "the role of ECOWAS parliament in the transposition of the ECOWAS Supplementary Acts on Telecommunications into national legislations".

The five-day meeting was characterised by a presentation of different papers on different issues such as the status of telecommunications in the ECOWAS sub-region.

The forum was officially opened by Senator Jefferson of Liberia, who doubles as the chairman of the ECOWAS Parliamentary Committee on Communication Technology and deputy speaker of the ECOWAS parliament.

The Liberian senator spoke at length on the role of telecommunications in the subregion, and the ECOWAS Supplementary Acts on Telecommunications, among others.

Hon Haddy Nyang Jagne, who is the rapporteur of the committee, described the sub-regional forum as very successful considering the brainstorming and extensive interaction.  

She expressed the need for accessible and affordable telecommunication services within the sub-region, Africa and the world at large and the need to have a competitive ICT market and networking between member countries.

Hon Haddy Nyang Jagne revealed that the meeting was attended by representatives from The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Togo, Burkina Faso, and Nigeria, among other African countries.

She added that recommendations, such as the need for the ECOWAS Parliament to urge national parliaments to immediately adopt the new telecommunications, ICT draft bills upon receiving them, and the need for national parliaments to play an active role in the promotion and development of telecommunications in the sub-region among other vital recommendations, were produced at the end of the Freetown meeting.