News (1352)
In a bid to digitize its whole administration and promote universal internet access, Egypt is working on a number of partnerships, including deals with German cooperation.
On May 31, the Egyptian Ministry of ICT signed a memorandum of cooperation with the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) for the implementation of the first phase of the "Supporting e-Government and Innovation in the Public Administration (InnoPA)" project.
Under that memorandum, GIZ will support digital transformation and the promotion of e-government in Egypt. The agreement also includes the construction of an innovation laboratory that will develop an incubation program for emerging SMEs that want to build e-government applications to make government services accessible to citizens.
According to Amr Talaat, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, the memorandum is part of Egypt’s digital strategy and efforts to promote digital transactions in all aspects of life, and to achieve the transformation to a “paperless participatory digital government that relies on a solid and secure infrastructure".
Over the past ten years, the Egyptian government has made unceasing efforts to modernize its administration. Thanks to the reforms and flagship projects of its digital strategy, Egypt jumped 37 places in the global e-government index between 2003 and 2022. Egypt is now the 6th African country providing public services online, according to a sub-indicator of the UN e-Government Development Index (EGDI).
For Amr Talaat, this agreement represents a further leap forward in Egypt’s digital ambition and in the constructive cooperation between the German and Egyptian governments.
Samira Njoya
The Gauteng provincial government is committed to the well-being and security of its population. To achieve this, the executive has turned to digital technology, which offers suitable technologies for this purpose.
On Thursday, May 25, Gauteng's Department of e-Government presented the 2023/2024 budget, as well as the digital projects planned by the province's Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA).
According to Mzi Khumalo (photo, center), Gauteng's executive council member for e-government, research, and development, the ZAR1.7 billion ($86 million) budget prioritizes key ICT projects like the implementation of an e-policing strategy in the province.
“Amongst other projects, the department has sought to prioritize the procurement and management of crime-fighting technologies to establish e-policing for the Gauteng Province,” said Mr. Mzi Khumalo.
The sum allocated has enabled Gauteng province to acquire facial recognition CCTV cameras in Diepsloot, one of the areas identified as crime hotspots. The aim, according to Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi, is to enable police to monitor the area 24 hours a day, and to highlight the ability of CCTV cameras to produce data that can be used in the fight against crime.
Other projects will also be implemented, including the acquisition of tracking devices to monitor vehicles, firearms, and other assets used in crime-fighting, and the manufacture of electronic panic buttons enabling the population to quickly contact the emergency services when in distress.
The Gauteng administration is also planning to develop a payment engine for cashless transactions for all provincial government departments and entities. There are also plans to continue providing services over the Gauteng broadband network (by providing Wi-Fi connectivity to schools, libraries, hospitals, community centers, and homes), to bring new services online, and to strengthen the youth’s ICT skills.
Samira Njoya
During his presidency, which began in May 2015, outgoing president, Muhammadu Buhari, successfully showcased Nigeria on the international tech scene. His successor wants to do even better over the next four years.
Bola Tinubu (photo), Nigeria’s new President sworn in on Monday, wants to leverage digital technologies to further develop the country.
To this end, he has drawn up a program focusing on seven areas: innovation and entrepreneurship, service provision and outsourcing, technology manufacturing, e-commerce, digitization of public services, broadband, and blockchain.
His team plans to implement policies to support local financing opportunities and access to capital to encourage foreign investors to continue investing in Nigeria. Policies to train and empower young people in ICT will also be developed.
They also plan to develop the e-commerce sector by upgrading the national transport infrastructure to provide nationwide services and meet the needs of consumers across the country.
The new government also wants to invest in the manufacture of technological products since it presents another major opportunity for job creation. Imported smartphones will be gradually replaced by local products from local assembly plants built to develop the tech manufacturing sector.
Concerning blockchain, the new President plans to reform government policy to encourage the prudent use of this new technology in finance and banking, identity management, revenue collection, and the use of crypto-assets.
Aware that all these projects will not come to fruition without good Internet connectivity, the new president is set on boosting broadband connectivity and providing high-speed internet to 90% of the population within the next two years. Currently, Nigeria's national fiber optic network is 98% complete, according to the government.
Universal Internet coverage will enable the use of public services, with further digitization expected for the coming months, we learn.
Mr. Tinubu targets one million jobs created in the ICT sector in his first 24 months in office.
In 2019, DRC published its digital transformation program, focusing mainly on the development of the digital economy to improve its contribution to GDP. To successfully implement that goal, it is counting on partnerships with countries like China whose digital economy contributed 41.5% to GDP in 2022.
China and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) recently signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen digital cooperation. The memorandum was signed in Beijing, last Friday, by Congolese Digital Minister Désiré Cashmir Eberande Kolongele and Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Qin Gang, on the sidelines of President Félix Tshisekedi's visit to China.
"We both expressed our desire to enhance cooperation through win-win partnerships that will be mutually beneficial for our people. Our relationship has greatly evolved. In the DRC, many things symbolize the friendship between our two countries,” said President Félix Tshisekedi.
On Sunday, May 28, at the end of the Congolese president's visit, a new agreement was signed in Shenzhen between the Congolese government and tech giant Huawei. It aims to promote digital transformation in the DRC, particularly the digitization of government services. According to President Tshisekedi, it will enable the development of several areas, including energy, education, health, public finance, and security.
The partnerships signed during the visit are fully in line with the 2025 Digital Transformation Plan, published by the government in 2019. That plan aims to leverage digital technologies to improve integration, good governance, economic growth, and social progress.
Let’s note that President Félix Tshisekedi's visit to China is part of the celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and the DRC.
Samira Njoya
The innovative project, a first of its kind in Africa, is launched to train the youth to prepare for the digital future and develop the digital economy.
On Saturday, May 27, Guinean Prime Minister Bernard Goumou (photo, center) officially launched the construction of a digital village in Ratoma, Conakry.
According to the government official, the digital village aims to make Guinea a major player in Africa’s digital revolution and an internationally competitive country.
The infrastructure will span over 46,707.12 square meters. It is co-funded, to the tune of $14.6 million, by the telecom regulator ARPT, the National Agency for Universal Service of Telecommunications and Digital (ANSUTEN), and the National Development Budget (BND).
It will host four academic and one administrative block, two buildings to house students, an amphitheater, a library, a teachers' residence, a sports center, secondary buildings, external landscaping and roads, and miscellaneous networks (VRD). It is expected to be completed within 12 months.
According to the initiator of the project, Vocational Minister Alpha Bacar Barry, the digital village will offer ongoing ICT training from primary school through to the university level. In addition to the digital education center, the village will also have a digital entrepreneurship center and a research and development center.
This ambitious project, the first of its kind in Africa, will stimulate the development of the digital sector and train a generation of Guinean talent capable of meeting the challenges of technological innovation. It will also draw the country closer to meeting its goal of creating a generation of digital champions to be able to fully capitalize on the global digital economy for growth by 2030.
Samira Njoya
South Africa, like most African countries, faces growing demand for high-speed connectivity amidst accelerated digital transformation. Data service providers need more capacity to meet this demand.
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) announced, Tuesday (May 23) it has released the lower 6GHz frequency band (5925-6425 MHz) to allow the provision of high-speed Wi-Fi connectivity.
According to the regulator, the additional spectrum can support more simultaneous connections, offer reduced latency, and provide faster data speeds, resulting in less interference, especially in potentially congested high-density areas and campuses.
The operation was completed through an amendment of Schedule B of ICASA's 2015 radio spectrum regulations. The Regulatory Authority began the process last December, following pressure from Internet service providers in the Rainbow Nation months before.
According to the Wireless Access Providers Association of South Africa (WAPA), the opening of the 6 GHz frequency band is expected to enable the deployment of Wi-Fi 6E, the latest Wi-Fi technology, bringing in as much as $57.76 billion to the country over the next 10 years.
“Overall, the implementation of the lower 6 GHz frequency band is expected to provide significant improvements, more robust and reliable wireless communications, and an enhanced user experience for both the consumers and businesses throughout the country,” the ICASA writes.
Isaac K. Kassouwi
Nigeria, with its 218 million population, needs 363,000 doctors to reach the WHO’s recommended one doctor for every 600 residents. With the ratio becoming less attainable, authorities have decided to leverage the power of tech tools.
Last week, the Nigerian Federal government inaugurated NigComHealth, an e-health solution. The solution was developed in partnership with NigComSat, a Nigerian ICT and telecommunications company, Sawtrax, a Nigerian software company, and Ethnomet, a Canadian health technology start-up. The aim is to provide people, especially those in rural and remote areas, with better access to health care.
“The doctor-patient ratio in the country is getting worse, with a physician attending to more than 5,000 patients. This represents a stark contrast with WHO’s recommendation of one doctor to 600 patients. With 218 million people to cater to, Nigeria requires at least 363,000 additional doctors to meet this target,” which NigComHealth is expected to achieve, according to Professor Salahu Junaidu, the Chief of Staff to the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy.
For several years now, the country has been the hotspot for the tech revolution in Africa. In the health sector, the number of healthtech solutions is multiplying and increasingly becoming a viable alternative to people with low or no access to health services. The solutions contribute to the achievement of the third sustainable development goal, which aims to ensure health and well-being for all by guaranteeing, among other things, universal access to medical coverage and health services.
However, despite the efforts, e-health solutions are not yet accessible to most rural populations. According to the GSMA, Sub-Saharan Africa had a 28% internet penetration rate in 2020. In addition, Nigeria particularly has the highest internet exclusion index in the world, according to a study published by World Data Lab in 2022. According to the same source, about 103 million people (out of a population of about 218 million) are "Internet poor," meaning they cannot afford the minimin Internet bundle.
In that context, if no additional measures are taken, NigComHealth, seen by politicians as the tool to resolve the desperate health access issue, may be just another healthtech solution in the Nigerian tech landscape.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
Over the past two years, several strategic sectors of the Malagasy economy have adopted tech tools to transform operating models. Even in the agricultural sector, authorities who are aware of the need to transform the sector for more efficiency are gradually encouraging the adoption of those tools.
Last Saturday, two Malagasy Ministries signed a partnership agreement with the local association Agritech Madagascar to accelerate the use of ICT tools in the agriculture sector. The two Ministries concerned were the Ministries of Agriculture and Livestock (MINAE) Digital Development, Digital Transformation, Posts and Telecommunications (MNDPT)
That agreement aims to pool resources, skills, and experiences to accelerate the modernization of the rural world and facilitate farmers’ access to information and means to develop their activities.
"Actors in the agricultural sector are unanimous on the need to digitalize agricultural services. Digitization is also an important element for the transformation and improvement of agriculture in Madagascar," said Minister of Agriculture Harifidy Janset Ramilison.
The Malagasy government pays special attention to agriculture in the country. In recent years, it has taken several actions to boost efficiency in the sector. According to the World Bank, the agricultural sector remains the "backbone" of the Malagasy economy, accounting for 70% of total employment and 29% of GDP.
The new partnership was signed on the sidelines of the Conference on Digital Transformation in Africa (ATDA). It will back the projects underway in the country, including the distribution of digital cards to farmers, the implementation of a system of traceability and identification by electronically readable forgery-proof loops, and the development of the national strategy for the digitalization of agricultural services.
Samira Njoya
In the digital era, data generated by internet users are raw materials for various multinationals. Restricting its misuse is a security issue, particularly in Africa where regulations are somewhat lax.
The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) announced on Monday (May 22), a €1.2 billion fine against Meta Platforms Ireland Limited. The fine was imposed over the violation of Article 46 (1) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in relation to the unlawful processing and storage of European Facebook users’ data in the U.S.
Meta Platforms Ireland Limited is allowed five months to "suspend any future transfer of personal data to the United States," six months to stop "the unlawful processing, including storage, in the United States" of the transferred EU personal data. The Irish CPO's decision comes in the week marking the fifth anniversary of the GDPR, which became effective on May 25, 2018.
The decision issued Monday by the Irish regulator is the umpteenth in a series of fines that stems from a multitude of complaints filed, since 2011, by privacy activist Max Schrems.
It calls on African authorities to regulate the management of African users’ private data by multinationals such as Facebook, Amazon, and Google ... whose services are used by hundreds of millions of people on the continent.
The African Union Convention on Cybersecurity and the Protection of Personal Data adopted on June 27, 2014, which aims to protect personal data is yet to become effective. As of April 11, 2023, it was ratified by 14 countries. The last country to ratify it was Côte d'Ivoire, on March 8, 2023. As per Article 36, one more ratification is needed for the text to officially become effective.
Muriel Edjo
Orange launched Djoliba, West Africa's first pan-African backbone, in 2020 to support the digital ecosystem and meet the growing need for connectivity in the region.
Broadband connectivity provider Angola Cables and telecom operator Orange recently signed an infrastructure-sharing agreement on the West African Djoliba backbone. The collaboration allows Angola Cables to leverage Orange's Djoliba network to strengthen its presence in French-speaking West African markets.
“Access to the West Africa Djoliba network and our robust submarine infrastructure broadens the capability of businesses to access international markets and offers expanded traffic destinations across West Africa and other parts of the world,” said Rui Faria, Angola Cables’ global commercial director.
The Djoliba network was unveiled in 2020 by Orange. It is the first fully secured network in West Africa with more than 10,000 km of terrestrial fiber optic network, coupled with 10,000 km of submarine cable. It gives very high-speed offers (up to 100 Gbit/s) and a 99.99% availability rate. This network covers 16 points of presence with a mesh of nearly 155 technical sites and links 300 points of presence in Europe, America, and Asia.
Thanks to the agreement with Orange, Angola Cables will combine this new capacity with its global network of international submarine cables such as WACS, SACS, MONET, and EllaLink to offer secure, low-latency connectivity, digital and cloud services to businesses in the region.
The partnership is part of the strategy launched by Angola Cables in 2020 to increase partnerships and investments to meet the growing demand for broadband connectivity, in Africa and beyond.
Samira Njoya
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The digital economy is already disrupting the labor market in Africa, where a significant lack of basic, intermediate, and advanced digital skills still exists. To address this skills gap, educational institutions are exploring the educational segment. Additionally, some other companies are also getting involved, albeit for different purposes.
Since its inauguration in October 2021, Orange Digital Center (ODC) has trained 1,900 individuals, including 60% women, in digital skills in Madagascar, according to Frédéric Debord (photo), CEO of telecom operator Orange Madagascar. More than 600 of the learners from this digital skills acquisition center were professionally inserted, we learn. According to Frédéric Debord, the Malagasy-based ODC is the only one in the 15 similar centers across Africa to have achieved such performance.
The executive made those comments at the 12th edition of the Conference on Digital Transformation in Africa (ATDA), held on May 19-20, 2023 under the theme "Human Capital: Catalyst for a successful African digital ecosystem.” During this international meeting, Frédéric Debord called on African digital actors to invest in training nearly 650 million individuals in digital skills on the continent by 2030.
According to the International Finance Corporation (IFC), more than 230 million jobs will require digital skills by 2030 in sub-Saharan Africa, which will translate into nearly 650 million training opportunities. The institution points out that digital skills will be among the seven most important skills in the future. Yet the current workforce does not have an adequate supply of these skills, and the gap between supply and demand, which is larger in sub-Saharan Africa than in other regions, is likely to grow.
For now, African education systems are not being reformed fast enough to take those realities into account. However, private training organizations are already moving to meet the needs with fee-based training. Sometimes, the trainings are free, thanks to investments made by companies as part of their social commitment.
For instance, under its corporate responsibility, Orange has deployed 42 women digital centers, in addition to its ODCs. The centers have helped train more than 10,000 unqualified and unemployed women in digital skills. The group has also deployed 240 Digital Schools in Madagascar, and more than 400,000 students and teachers are benefiting from the program, which aims to improve the quality of education, promote equal access to digital education and encourage the use of digital tools in schools.
Since 2020, Internet traffic and demand for broadband connectivity have been growing steadily in Africa. According to some institutions, IXPs could be a solution to localize traffic and improve connections.
The non-governmental organization "Internet for All" and the German company DE-CIX, in partnership with the Digital Development Agency (ADN), are set to launch Africa Congo Internet Exchange (ACIX), the largest Internet exchange in Central Africa, in Kinshasa today Monday.
“ACIX, Africa Congo Internet Exchange, provides an interconnection ecosystem for Central Africa to fulfill the growing interconnection needs of companies and end users – high-quality affordable connections for a better user experience, and for a more interconnected digital future,” ACIX explains in its “About” page.
The exchange is launched in the context of increasing Internet traffic across Africa, driven notably by digital transformation and new digital consumption patterns. According to the Internet Society (Isoc), Africa should invest more in Internet exchanges (IXPs) to improve connectivity on the continent and reduce access costs. To back its recommendation, in its report “Anchoring the African Internet Ecosystem: Lessons from Kenya and Nigeria’s Internet Exchange Points Growth,” the NGO indicates that Nigeria and Kenya boosted “the levels of Internet traffic that is locally exchanged from 30% to 70%” between 2012 and 2020 thanks to IXPs.
By enabling the local exchange of Internet traffic, IXPs save on large, recurring, and expensive international IP transit costs, reduce Internet costs, and significantly improve the quality and availability of connectivity, which in turn improves ISP revenues.
In that context, ACIX will be extremely useful. It is based in the DRC, the second largest country in Africa with nine border countries that have clearly stated ambitions for transnational and continental connectivity.
The exchange point is also part of the African expansion plan of the Deutscher Commercial Internet Exchange (DE-CIX), the world's largest Internet Exchange Point (IXP) in terms of traffic.
Samira Njoya
The partnership aims to reinforce cooperation between the two countries, which aim to leverage digital technologies to drive economic growth.
Singapore and Kenya signed, Thursday (May 18), three agreements including a memorandum of understanding covering the digital economy. The agreements were signed during an official visit of Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to Kenya.
On Twitter, Kenyan President Williams Ruto said the MoU on the digital economy will "facilitate cooperation on cybersecurity, digitization of government services and ICT capacity building.”
In Singapore, the digital sector is a key component of economic plans, and the sector has grown significantly in recent years. The Singaporean IT market was valued at $41.76 billion in 2021. It is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.9% to reach $61.06 billion by 2026, according to a recent report by Global Data.
Meanwhile, last year, Kenya launched a 10-year digital master plan -covering the 2022-2032 period- to align with global technological advances and strengthen its digital economy. The digital master plan identifies four key pillars: digital infrastructure, digital services, and data management as well as digital skills and stimulating digital innovation for entrepreneurship.
According to the Singaporean Prime Minister, the MoU will further the bilateral relationship between the two countries by targeting economic opportunities that will bolster shared prosperity.
Samira Njoya
Burkina Faso is under a growing terrorist threat since 2015. To effectively respond to these attacks in the country, the government has turned to digital technologies, which offer a range of tools to counter insecurity.
The National Gendarmerie of Burkina Faso, on Tuesday, May 16, inaugurated its Digital Brigade for Alert and Assistance (BNVAA).
The brigade is accessible via its web platform and a mobile application “Ma Gendarmerie BF”, available on Playstore and Appstore. It aims to provide citizens with a direct and accessible communication channel with the national gendarmerie.
According to Lieutenant-Colonel Evrard Somda, Chief of Staff of the National Gendarmerie, the digital brigade "is a practical and quick way for the gendarmes to interact and respond to users’ concerns every hour of the day, monitor social networks to analyze the feelings of people on particular topics or detect subversive messages and comments, publish safety tips and alerts in case of incidents or disasters, and give recommendations to guard against burglary or online scams.”
The BNVAA is part of the Burkina Faso government's drive to leverage digital technologies to bring government services closer to the population. It was set up to support the national gendarmerie in its fight against growing insecurity.
The brigade will be managed by trained personnel grouped under two teams. The first team will oversee the collection and analysis of digital data and evidence and handle interactions with the population, through a chatbot assisted by a security agent. The second team will take care of the creation of awareness materials and produce intelligence reports on the security situation.
According to the executive, the objective is to optimize the performance of the gendarmerie by strengthening and consolidating its connection with citizens. The BNVAA also aims to ensure the physical presence of territorial brigades and intervention units, as well as reduce waiting times when citizens request their services.
Samira Njoya