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A new wave of reforms across Africa is setting the stage for significantly cheaper cross-border call rates, as regional blocs and national regulators move to cut mobile termination rates (MTRs) and roaming charges.
SPECIAL REPORT | BIRD AGENCY | Cross-border traders and travellers across Africa are set to benefit from cheaper calls, texts and data, as a new wave of telecom reforms gains momentum across the continent.
Regional blocs and national regulators are moving to cut mobile termination rates (MTRs) and roaming charges, to ease communication, lower the cost of doing business and support growing regional integration.
Five Southern African Development Community (SADC) member states, Malawi, Lesotho, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe are the latest to announce reduced and harmonised mobile roaming tariffs under the One Network Area (ONA) framework.
Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority (BOCRA), which is spearheading the push said mobile network operators in these countries have introduced price reductions ranging from 10% to as much as 98.6% for data, voice and SMS services.
“The ONA initiative is aligned to efforts by SADC Member States to reduce and harmonise roaming charges across the region and it is intended to progressively expand to include other SADC Member States,” said BOCRA in a statement.
Botswana and Namibia were the first within SADC to roll out reduced and harmonised roaming rates in August 2024.
High roaming charges have for many years been a major pain point for travellers and small-scale cross-border traders, who often face steep costs for making calls, sending texts or using mobile data outside their home networks.
“I remember trying to upload pictures of some clothes I had seen at a market across the Tanzanian border to share with a client back home, but my data just disappeared within minutes,” recalls John Njue a Kenyan traveller.
Njue told bird he usually travels across the east African borders which are visa free to meet friends and relatives and is usually on the lookout for unique clothes , shoes and watches that he could carry back home for trade.
“Before I could even make a follow-up call, my airtime was almost gone. I had to wait until I changed SIM cards, which delayed everything,” he explained the frustrations he said always hits when he crosses borders.
Switching SIM cards is a common cross border practise across the continent to maintain communication for thoses seeking to avoid absorbing high cross border calls, with some businesses reporting reduced efficiency due to the inability to stay reliably connected while on the move. The high fees have also been cited as a barrier to regional trade and integration, particularly for informal traders who rely heavily on mobile communication.
The East African Community bloc is also looking to create a unified telecommunications market by eliminating roaming charges and enabling calls within the region at local rates.
The EAC’s 7th Development Strategy for 2026–2031 also prioritises the development of harmonised policy and regulatory frameworks covering licensing, universal access, spectrum policy, competition and tariffs by 2028/29 under the One Network Area.
“This initiative fosters greater connectivity and economic integration by making communication more affordable and seamless across borders,” according to the strategy.
While mobile coverage across the region is already widespread, the regional strategy notes that a key challenge now is making internet use more affordable and meaningful in order to close the digital inclusion gap.
The EAC ONA initiative was first piloted by Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda and has since expanded to include Tanzania, Burundi and South Sudan, with plans to bring in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia.
Countries under the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), are rolling out phased free-roaming initiatives that allows travellers to move within participating countries without incurring high international roaming charges.
In February, the ECOWAS Commission said it was intensifying efforts to make cross-border mobile communication more affordable and seamless across West Africa.
“Over half of the Member States have already implemented at least one bilateral roaming agreement, allowing people and businesses to stay connected at lower costs and providing meaningful savings to consumers,” said ECOWAS Commission in a recent update.
The update follows a three-day workshop in Accra Ghana, bringing together ICT Ministries, National Regulators, the West Africa Telecommunications Regulators Assembly (WATRA) and Smart Africa to validate the Draft Final Report on the review of the implementation of Regulation on Roaming on Public Mobile Communication Networks in the ECOWAS space.
Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone and The Gambia are among those offering free or significantly reduced incoming calls and local-rate charges for voice, SMS and data.
In 2025, Sierra Leone’s National Communications Authority (NatCA) expanded free roaming benefits for short-term travellers across the region under the ECOWAS Free Roaming Initiative and the Abidjan Protocol. Sierra Leoneans visiting Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia and Liberia can now receive incoming calls free of charge for one month, while outbound calls and SMS are billed at local rates.
Under the Abidjan Protocol, travellers to Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal and Togo can also access up to 300 free incoming call minutes on the Orange network before standard charges apply.
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SOURCE: Conrad Onyango, bird story agency
