Côte d’Ivoire plans to set up a telecommunications supervision system in 2021. The establishment and operation of such a system will make it possible to monitor the flow of electronic communications and thus combat telecommunications fraud.
The Information and Communication Technology Regulatory Authority (ARTIC) of Côte d’Ivoire has planned to have a telecommunications supervision tool in 2021. The initiative officially took effect with Order No. 2019-495 of 12 June 2019. Closed on October 8, 2020, the call for tenders was launched for service providers. The bidding companies, Global Voice Group, Soumglobal LLC and Telsig Ltd, are more or less known for their results on the African continent.
In the third quarter of 2020, the country’s telecommunications market represented more than FCFA 245 billion, with a mobile penetration rate exceeding 145%. However, without a digital flow measurement system, it is difficult to estimate the amount of losses resulting from tax and telephone fraud. Thus, such a system will enable the State to improve its monitoring of the various flows of electronic communications and to combat fraud.
Indeed, the reliable and independent supervision of telecommunications will allow the Ivorian government to know, in real time, the revenues generated by operators in order to properly recover the tax due to it. This will also allow it to foil SIM boxing, a practice that allows fraudsters to make international calls for domestic calls.
