Telecommunications ministers meet

West African telecommunications ministers met on Friday in Bamako, Mali, to consider ways to improve direct connection among the 16 member countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), an official of the regional body told IRIN. They examined issues related to the future of the Special Telecommunication Fund set up to improve direct connections in the subregion. The ministers also reviewed progress in implementing the Intelcom II Programme. Intelcom II is to provide ECOWAS with a modern, reliable telecommunications network able to handle all services, including multimedia operations. To this end, ECOWAS has signed a US $222,000 deal with the International Telecommunication Union. This amount, to be provided by the ITU, is 67.6 percent of the project cost. ECOWAS says it expects to provide the remainder - US $106,400. ECOWAS is made up of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote d'Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.