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DIGITAL
Internet
Africa Union: Accelerating digital transformation across the continent Communications Africa exclusively interviews Moctar Yedley, head of the Department of Information Society at the African Union Commission (AUC), about the policy changes in place to accelerate Africa’s digital connectivity.
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The AU Commission has declared cybersecurity as a flagship project.
What is African Union’s vision on Africa’s digital transformation? Moctar Yedley: Our vision is to digitally empower our people and our institutions, safely and securely. Indeed, digitisation and digital transformation have brought important productivity gains across all socio-economic development sectors. It has not only provided the conditions for enhanced participation in international value chains, facilitated market access, and lowered transaction costs, but it has also transformed governments and made them more efficient, effective and accountable. This will certainly increase cross-border trade and accelerate the progress of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), all of which are crucial to Africa’s integration, leading to a unified market that will open up job opportunties for our youth. In collaboration with African and international partners we have started drafting the AU Strategy on Digital Transformation while continuing to build a digital ecosystem through the Programme for
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Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA), African Internet Exchange Systems (AXIS) on data centres and the Policy and Regulatory Initiative For Digital Africa (PRIDA).
Our vision is to digitally empower our people and our institutions, safely and securely. Since the last Specialised Technical Committee (STC) meeting on communication and ICT with ministers, what have been some of the major achievements? MY: We have made significant progress, most notably since the AU summit adopted the Declaration on Internet Governance and Africa’s Digital Economy. This important event is a conclusion of two years of the Inclusive Policy Development Process (IPDP). I believe it is the first time such an important document
has been discussed in the public arena and then later endorsed. The AU Commission has also declared cybersecurity as a flagship project. This means that the matter has now become one of the top priorities of the AU’s agenda. Last July, we trained 126 policy, technical and law enforcement experts from 42 member states on issues such as cybersecurity strategies, cyber legislations and cyber capabilities. We have also organised the first African Forum on Cybercrime, which was attended by more than 300 African and international participants including the Council of Europe and Interpol. We also launched guidelines on privacy and personal data protection in Africa prepared jointly with the Internet Society (ISOC). We successfully organised the seventh meeting of the African Internet Governance Forum (AfIGF) in Khartoum last November, and launched the digital platform for knowledge management for exchanges of best practices on digital policies and Internet governance
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