{"id":25760,"date":"2026-05-07T08:30:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T07:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/?p=25760"},"modified":"2026-05-07T17:23:02","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T16:23:02","slug":"gsma-calls-for-urgent-action-to-protect-connectivity-resilience-across-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/statement\/gsma-calls-for-urgent-action-to-protect-connectivity-resilience-across-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"GSMA\u00a0Calls\u00a0for Urgent Action to Protect Connectivity Resilience Across\u00a0Africa\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Mobile connectivity is essential infrastructure&nbsp;\u2013&nbsp;on par with water and energy. Across Africa, it underpins emergency communications, financial services, healthcare,&nbsp;education&nbsp;and the daily lives of millions.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The mobile industry is committed to supporting Africa&#8217;s development goals and the digitalisation&nbsp;objectives&nbsp;of AU Agenda 2063. But rising fuel costs and supply pressures are putting network operations at risk&nbsp;\u2013&nbsp;a challenge felt across fuel-dependent markets globally. Where digital gaps&nbsp;remain&nbsp;greatest, fuel shortages&nbsp;don&#8217;t&nbsp;just disrupt telecom operations; they threaten essential services, economic&nbsp;activity&nbsp;and broader digital progress.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Resilient connectivity is also a powerful ally for governments navigating economic pressure. Reliable networks sustain commerce, digital payments, emergency coordination and remote access to services,&nbsp;reducing unnecessary travel and supporting communities when it matters most. Protecting network continuity is therefore not a sector-specific concern, but a national development priority.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The GSMA is calling for urgent, coordinated action&nbsp;between governments,&nbsp;regulators&nbsp;and industry to protect essential services:&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Immediately:<\/strong>&nbsp;prioritise fuel access for telecom networks and provide targeted relief where outages are linked to supply constraints.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Medium term:<\/strong>&nbsp;treat telecoms as critical national infrastructure, adopt shared-responsibility models for site protection and support investment in alternative and renewable power solutions.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Long term:<\/strong>\u00a0embed telecom energy resilience into national digital, energy and security strategies to create the stable frameworks needed for sustainable investment,\u00a0while accelerating the transition towards more sustainable and renewable energy solutions to reduce long-term dependency on fuel-based power systems.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The mobile industry is already acting&nbsp;\u2013&nbsp;improving energy efficiency, protecting critical&nbsp;sites&nbsp;and continuing to invest. The GSMA and its members&nbsp;remain&nbsp;committed to working with governments, regulators and operators to keep Africa connected, protect gains in digital inclusion, and build more resilient digital economies for the future.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mobile connectivity is essential infrastructure&nbsp;\u2013&nbsp;on par with water and energy. Across Africa, it underpins emergency communications, financial services, healthcare,&nbsp;education&nbsp;and the daily lives of millions.&nbsp; The mobile industry is committed to supporting Africa&#8217;s development goals and the digitalisation&nbsp;objectives&nbsp;of AU Agenda 2063. But rising fuel costs and supply pressures are putting network operations at risk&nbsp;\u2013&nbsp;a challenge felt [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":116,"featured_media":25758,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[4784],"tags":[],"algolia_discover_type":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.0 (Yoast SEO v22.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>GSMA\u00a0Calls\u00a0for Urgent Action to Protect Connectivity Resilience Across\u00a0Africa\u00a0 - Newsroom<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/statement\/gsma-calls-for-urgent-action-to-protect-connectivity-resilience-across-africa\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"GSMA\u00a0Calls\u00a0for Urgent Action to Protect Connectivity Resilience Across\u00a0Africa\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mobile connectivity is essential infrastructure&nbsp;\u2013&nbsp;on par with water and energy. Across Africa, it underpins emergency communications, financial services, healthcare,&nbsp;education&nbsp;and the daily lives of millions.&nbsp; The mobile industry is committed to supporting Africa&#8217;s development goals and the digitalisation&nbsp;objectives&nbsp;of AU Agenda 2063. 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Across Africa, it underpins emergency communications, financial services, healthcare,&nbsp;education&nbsp;and the daily lives of millions.&nbsp; The mobile industry is committed to supporting Africa&#8217;s development goals and the digitalisation&nbsp;objectives&nbsp;of AU Agenda 2063. But rising fuel costs and supply pressures are putting network operations at risk&nbsp;\u2013&nbsp;a challenge felt [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/statement\/gsma-calls-for-urgent-action-to-protect-connectivity-resilience-across-africa\/","og_site_name":"Newsroom","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gsma\/","article_published_time":"2026-05-07T07:30:11+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-05-07T16:23:02+00:00","og_image":[{"width":600,"height":300,"url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/GSMA-logo-1.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"ssharma@gsma.com","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@GSMA","twitter_site":"@GSMA","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"ssharma@gsma.com","Estimated reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/statement\/gsma-calls-for-urgent-action-to-protect-connectivity-resilience-across-africa\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/statement\/gsma-calls-for-urgent-action-to-protect-connectivity-resilience-across-africa\/"},"author":{"name":"ssharma@gsma.com","@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/e724eba4846a50206db8ca64bace5ceb"},"headline":"GSMA\u00a0Calls\u00a0for Urgent Action to Protect Connectivity Resilience Across\u00a0Africa\u00a0","datePublished":"2026-05-07T07:30:11+00:00","dateModified":"2026-05-07T16:23:02+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/statement\/gsma-calls-for-urgent-action-to-protect-connectivity-resilience-across-africa\/"},"wordCount":331,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/statement\/gsma-calls-for-urgent-action-to-protect-connectivity-resilience-across-africa\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/GSMA-logo-1.png","articleSection":["Statement"],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/statement\/gsma-calls-for-urgent-action-to-protect-connectivity-resilience-across-africa\/","url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/statement\/gsma-calls-for-urgent-action-to-protect-connectivity-resilience-across-africa\/","name":"GSMA\u00a0Calls\u00a0for Urgent Action to Protect Connectivity Resilience Across\u00a0Africa\u00a0 - 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