WATRA attended GSR-26, ITU’s yearly global platform for knowledge exchange between regulators, which held from the 12th to the 15th of May 2026 in Ankara, Turkiye
The three-day Global Symposium for Regulators 2026 (GSR-26) brought together regulators, policy makers, and digital stakeholders from around the world, organizing sessions on navigating regulatory pathways towards a resilient and inclusive digital future. The annual symposium issues guidelines to help regulators govern the digital market with clarity, evidence, and coherence.
The recurring themes of the workshops centered around data-driven and future-oriented regulation, inclusive and universal connectivity, collaborative governance, strategic infrastructure development, and innovation and sustainability. Attendees were brought back consistently to a shared idea: how societies, regulators, and industries can proactively prepare for rapid technological transformation while ensuring inclusion, resilience, and sustainability.
Engr. Aliyu Aboki, WATRA’s Executive Secretary, was an active and visible contributor to the symposium, in particular during two workshops. On the third day of the symposium, he was a panelist on a session titled “The Deep-Sea Digital Highway: Resilience of Submarine Cables and Enhancing Regional Connectivity Hubs”. The discussions focused on addressing the strategic importance of subsea infrastructure as the lifeblood of the global digital economy, and the importance to regulators and policymakers of protecting these subsea assets from environmental risks and intentional interference.
On the final day of the symposium, he was the moderator for a session titled “Unlocking Investment.” The session discussed ow to unlock investment through innovative business models, targeted incentives, sustainability-linked financing, and the use of public seed funds to attract private capital and build investors’ confidence. He moderated conversation around accelerating digital transformation through innovative financing models while ensuring sustainability and inclusion, economic and regulatory incentives for investment in emerging areas, Universal service funds acting as seed money for private sector investment, and attracting investment in digital innovation while reducing risk.
Read more about GSR-26 here