Benin Telecommunications Sector Performance Review 2007

Benin
GSM, television, radio, data transmission, maintenance, etc).
In Benin, a number of business persons have taken many initiatives to
boost their businesses through the use of ICTs. The Government supports
most of these actions with regard to infrastructure and sectoral
use. This support has been made effective with the setting up of a ministry
in charge of promoting ICTs and a national agency for the management
of ICTs. Even so, the conditions under which these public and private
businesses operate do not allow for a harmonious and meaningful
development of ICTs for the benefit of the nation as a whole.
In this regard, there is a need to assess the performance of the ICT sector
under current policy conditions. In doing so, this paper will seek to
answer the following questions:
What is the current situation of the ICT sector in Benin?
Who are the main contenders in the ICT sector in Benin?
In what way does government use ICTs to better organise and
enhance the performance of public services?
How are activities regulated in the sector?
How do players in this sector assess the current regulatory system?
What are the policies and strategies required to achieve the national
objective of building an information society and knowledge?
These are the questions that constitute the raison d’être of this study,
where the objective is to make a progress report on the performance of
the ICT sector in Benin.
OBJECTIVES
The overall objective of this paper is to assess the performance of the ICT
sector in Benin against national policy objectives and to appraise the
telecommunications regulatory environment through an analysis of the
opinions of major participants in the sector on the regulatory system.
More specifically, the study aims to:
Collect data on the main indicators in the sector;
Trace the development of the ICT sector in Benin;
Identify various ways in which government uses ICTs and examine
the impact of ICTs on the performance of public services;
Evaluate the regulatory environment of activities in the ICT sector;
Propose economic policies with a view to improving the appropriation
of ICTs by Beninese.
POLITICAL SETTING
Formerly called Dahomey, Benin is located in West Africa in the tropical
zone between the equator and the Tropic of Cancer between parallels
6°30’ and 12°30’ North and meridian lines 1° and 30°40’ East. Bordered
in the South by the Atlantic Ocean, the Republic of Benin is bordered in
the North by River Niger which separates it from the Republic of Niger;
in the North-West by Burkina Faso, in the West by Togo, and in the East
by Nigeria. The surface area of Benin is 114 763 km2. It stretches about
700 km from North to South; the width varies between 125 km (along the
coast) and 325 km (Tanguiéta-ségbana latitude).
2007 Telecommunications Sector Performance Review
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