Nigeria is hosting telecommunications and digital-economy ministers in Abuja for the African Telecommunications Union’s seventh Conference of Plenipotentiaries on July 23 and 24.\n\nThe conference is the union’s highest decision-making meeting. Its published agenda includes adopting the organization’s program and budget for 2027 through 2031, electing a secretary general and members of the Administrative Council, and considering common African positions ahead of the International Telecommunication Union’s plenipotentiary conference later this year.\n\nA ministerial roundtable is focused on what the ATU calls meaningful connectivity: access that is not only technically available but affordable, reliable and useful. The discussion is expected to cover terrestrial networks, community systems, satellites, spectrum policy, devices and the regulatory conditions needed to extend service to people who remain unconnected or cannot make effective use of existing networks.\n\nOrganizers expect ministers to adopt an Abuja Declaration on connectivity. Because the conference is still under way, the final declaration, election results and any binding decisions should be assessed only after the ATU publishes the adopted documents.\n\nNigeria’s communications ministry said delegates from the union’s 52 member states were expected. Preparatory meetings began earlier in July, while the ministerial conference opened on July 23 at the Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Conference Centre.\n\nSource: Nigerian Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy — https://fmcide.gov.ng/nigeria-set-to-host-africas-ict-ministers-as-atu-conference-of-plenipotentiaries-convenes-in-abuja/\n\nSource: African Telecommunications Union conference agenda and program — https://atuuat.africa/event/cpl-2026/