West and Central African countries pledge to halve the cost of the internet by 2028
November 20th 2025
In Cotonou, the ministers in charge of digital affairs from West and Central African countries made, among other commitments, to halve the cost of the Internet by 2028, during a regional summit dedicated to digital transformation, digital inclusion and artificial intelligence.
In Cotonou, some fifteen African countries (West and Central Africa) pledged on Tuesday, November 18, to halve the cost of the Internet by 2028. Meeting at the Regional Summit on Digital Transformation, the Ministers of Digital Affairs from Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Niger, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Cape Verde, Congo, Chad, Nigeria, Liberia, Togo and Ghana adopted the Cotonou Declaration, a text which aims to remove the barriers that hinder access to digital technology in a region that is still massively disconnected.
The final document, presented by Sierra Leone’s Minister of Communications, Salima Monorma Bah, and described as “groundbreaking ,” outlines regional priorities in connectivity, infrastructure, digital identity, artificial intelligence, and employment. Participants hailed this policy framework as a turning point in building an integrated African digital market, because behind the rhetoric of the “digital revolution,” the realities on the ground highlight the scale of the challenge. Only 38-40% of West and Central Africans use the internet, leaving 62% of the population offline, even though coverage rates reach 80%. This divide is widening between countries: Cape Verde, Gabon, and Ghana boast usage rates of 60-75%, while Niger and Chad are stuck at 10-15%.
“ The challenge is no longer coverage, but inclusion, ” summarized Ousmane Diagana, World Bank Vice President for West and Central Africa, at the opening session. Access exists, but it remains out of reach for millions of households. One of the major obstacles remains the price. West Africa is currently the region where data is least affordable in the world. Fixed broadband represents on average 21.5% of monthly income – while the international standard recommends staying below 2%. Even mobile, although more accessible, absorbs 4.6% of income, more than double the threshold recommended by the UN. In some countries, the figures become staggering: in Liberia, a fixed broadband subscription exceeds 150% of monthly income; in the Central African Republic, it approaches 27%.
“West and Central Africa pay twice as much per gigabyte as the global average ,” acknowledges Roger Félix Adom, former Minister of Digital Economy of Côte d’Ivoire. “Without a drastic price reduction, it will be impossible to include populations in the digital economy ,” warned Sangbu Kim, World Bank Vice President for Digital Affairs.
Ousmane Diagana echoed this sentiment: “We must reduce the digital divide, review prices and make smartphones affordable so that digital technology ceases to be a luxury.”
The Cotonou Declaration aims to break this spiral of digital access gaps. States commit to modernizing networks, strengthening national backbones, harmonizing roaming charges, and developing regional Internet exchange points to reduce dependence on foreign infrastructure – a source of high costs and vulnerability. They also want to accelerate interconnection between neighboring countries and encourage the establishment of regional data centers capable of hosting 40% of critical government data by 2030, whereas currently, “West Africa’s computing capacity represents only 0.2%” of the global total, according to Sangbu Kim. “The era of isolated projects is over: only a shared vision and coordinated investments will allow us to include our populations in the digital economy ,” emphasized Aurélie Adam Soulé Zoumarou, Benin’s Minister of Digital Affairs, calling for closer regional collaboration.
The ministers are calling for the creation of a regional mechanism to finance digital transformation in order to attract private capital, multilateral funding, and public investment. “The stated objective is to make digital technology an effective right, and not a luxury reserved for urban centers or connected elites,” said Ibrahim Kalil Konaté, Minister of Digital Transition and Digitalization of Côte d’Ivoire.
And while states promised to act quickly in Cotonou, the challenge now is to translate those words into action. As Moustapha Cissé, CEO of Kera Health and former head of Africa’s first artificial intelligence research center, reminded everyone, “The Cotonou Declaration must be the final declaration for the sub-region. Now we must act . “
Back