The African Telecommunications Union is pleased to report that Tanzania, South Sudan and Kenya, have revved up their commitment to the African Telecommunications Union (Union). At the Conference of Plenipotentiaries (CPL) held in Algeria in July 2022, the CPL-22, the Union’s top decision-making organ, noted the tremendous efforts by the General Secretariat during the last four years in delivering the Union’s mandate and called upon the Membership to voluntarily increase their contributions and support to the Union, including contributions to the Fellowship Fund.
In response to the call by the CPL-22, Tanzania announced in February 2023 that it would double its contributions to the Union effective June 2023. The announcement by Tanzania was closely followed by that of South Sudan in March 2023, indicating that, quite apart from its normal annual subscriptions to the Union, the country would give a voluntary contribution of USD50,000 to the Union’s Fellowship Fund. Just last week, Kenya announced that effective June 2023, it shall triple its annual subscriptions to the Union. That announcement makes Kenya the highest contributor to the Union, taking into account that the country already covers monthly costs averaging USD 15000 for temporarily hosting the Union in Nairobi. The announcements by Tanzania, South Sudan and Kenya follow those earlier made by Burkina Faso, Ghana, Namibia, Senegal and Nigeria during the CPL-22 about increasing their annual contributions to the Union.
The Union reiterates her commitment to playing a leading role in pioneering revolutionary solutions to challenges of connectivity and access in order to propel innovations and cutting-edge developments in the ever-evolving global digital landscape. We shall continue in our match to build more strategic partnerships as part of strengthening our resource envelope. In order to fulfil the Union’s mandate fully, we need to fill the existing funding gaps and, therefore, we invite our membership to answer to the call by the CPL-22 for additional resources to the Union. We convey our deepest appreciation to Tanzania, South Sudan and Kenya for their gesture and to the membership that have showed stronger commitments to the Union’s ideals by increasing their annual contributions.
