MEDIA ADVISORY

Memorandum of Understanding (MOUs) between the Global Voice Group and the Smart Africa towards driving Africa’s Leap in Telecommunications

INVITATION TO REPRESENTATIVES OF THE MEDIA

What: Memorandum of Understanding (MOUs) between the Global Voice Group and the Smart Africa, which will take place during the 9th Smart Africa Steering Committee, from 8 – 9 February 2018 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
When: Friday, 9th February 2018.

Time: From 15.00 hrs.
Where: African Union New Conference Center (NCC), Small Conference Hall 4.

Who: The Ceremony will be hosted by the AU Commission, Department of Infrastructure and Energy.
Notes to the editors:
One of Smart Africa’s most important strategies is to adopt a harmonised African telecommunications framework – the “One Africa Network” (OAN), which is expected to give African countries the potential to make significant leaps in development through lower “intra-region” communication costs. The East African Community (EAC), together with some other countries in the region not part of the EAC are already on their way to adopting the one network concept.
The One Africa Network agreement was signed by six African presidents and will hopefully see amongst other things:
• broadband across Africa
• the harmonisation of tariffs on mobile voice calls, text messaging and data transmission
• the removal of all mobile telephony barriers
• the reduction in calling rates across the continent
• the scrapping of mobile roaming charges

Journalists are invited to cover the event of Signing the Memorandum of Understanding (MOUs) on Friday, 9th February 2018.

Media inquiries and requests should be directed to:

Mrs. Esther Azaa Tankou| Head of Information Division | African Union Commission | Tel: +251 (0) 911361185 | E-mail: yamboue@africa-union.org |
Mr. Gamal Ahmed A. Karrar| Communication Officer| Directorate of Information and Communication| E-mail: GamalK@africa-union.org
Ms. Winnie Wambugu| Head of Communication| Smart Africa| Email: winniewambugu@smartafrica.org

For further information:
Directorate of Information and Communication | African Union Commission I E-mail: dic@africa-union.org I Web Site: www.au.int I Addis Ababa | Ethiopia

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