Public Management (335)
Digitization is a major development challenge for WAEMU countries. Despite the ambitious national strategies and progress made, digital transformation in the region is still lagging compared to the global performance.
On Wednesday, June 7, the West African Development Bank (WADB-BOAD) and the Smart Africa Alliance signed a framework agreement to accelerate digital transformation in WAEMU countries.
The agreement was signed by WADB President Serge Ekue (photo, right) and Lacina Koné (photo, left), Director General of the Smart Africa Alliance, in Lomé, Togo.
The new agreement aims to support the development of the e-commerce industry in the WAEMU region and support the implementation of financial inclusion projects to advance subregional integration in line with Point 1 of Djoliba, the WADB’s 2021-2025 strategic plan, reveals Togolese media outlet Agence togolaise de presse.
"The vision is to transform our Africa, to ensure that all our populations can project themselves into the future in a very concrete way by using digital technology in various fields, notably agriculture, and energy," said Ekue.
Since its creation in 2014, Smart Africa Alliance -comprising 35 out of the 54 African countries- has been working to make digital transformation a tool for economic development by involving the private sector and member countries in concrete initiatives.
With this agreement, the WADB partners with an alliance whose aim is to leverage digital technologies for development in Africa. The two parties will implement several projects to support innovation. They will disseminate startup toolkits in member countries, enhance capacities and upskill actors in the WAEMU region while scaling up the Smart Africa Digital Academy (SADA).
Samira Njoya
In recent years, Rwanda has implemented numerous reforms to advance economic competitiveness. One of the strategies it employed to achieve this feat is the provision of quality services and customer care in the public and private sectors.
The Rwandan government will digitize more than 400 additional administrative procedures by June 2024. The plan was announced by ICT Minister Paula Ingabire, during a session on ICT development with the Senate on Thursday, June 1.
The new administrative procedures will be added to the 103 services already digitized and available on the Irembo portal set up by the government for this purpose. According to Minister Ingabire, the next stage of digitization will be transformational. It will involve digitizing all remaining services, "enabling time efficiency and removing unnecessary costs and processes that come with paperwork or transport as citizens make trips to different government offices.”
To achieve this goal, Rwanda will be supported by a range of partners, including the French Development Agency (AFD), which granted a €37 million loan to support the digitization of public services and innovation in the country earlier this year.
According to Irembo CEO Israel Bimpe, the launch of the Irembo public services platform in December 2015 has enabled the processing of more than 25 million service requests to date. This has saved over 100 million man-hours for both civil servants and Rwandan residents.
The portal employs 7,700 agents in different regions of the country, and more than 1,500 government officials use it to approve and deliver necessary services. As a result, the government has been able to collect RWF 300 billion ($265 million) in service fees.
This new initiative is part of a RWF 13 billion project that began in March this year with the identification of the services concerned. The project is one of the priorities of Rwanda's National Transformation Strategy (2017-2024).
Samira Njoya
Senegal wants to digitize some 700 administrative procedures by 2025. To achieve that ambitious goal, it tasked the public IT agency SENUM S.A to work with specialized partners to reach the target.
On Thursday, June 1, Sénégal Numérique SA (SENUM SA), the state agency in charge of the management of Senegal's digital infrastructure, and digital company Elm signed a memorandum of understanding in Morocco, on the sidelines of Gitex Africa.
The memorandum lays the groundwork for Elm to support SENUM SA in its mission to leverage technology to stimulate economic growth, improve public services, empower Senegal's citizens, and consequently promote digital inclusion.
"We look forward to developing digital services in Africa. This will open up expansion opportunities, provide innovative services and solutions to strengthen the digital infrastructure and meet the needs of stakeholders," said Majed bin Saad Al-Arifi (photo, left), Elm’s spokesperson and director of marketing.
As part of the partnership, Elm will create advanced digital platforms offering a diverse range of consulting services. The two parties will also build short- and long-term strategic plans to exploit the opportunities available in the market as well as define joint initiatives and projects aimed at strengthening their cooperation over the specified period.
This agreement is part of Senegal numérique SA's efforts to multiply partnerships to further develop its public services platform. For Elm, the protocol is a godsend for achieving its objectives, notably the creation of business opportunities in Africa and the expansion of its regional and international presence.
Since the beginning of the year, SENUM SA has signed several partnerships, including one with the esports promotion agency CONAPES, another one with the national statistics agency, and two others with Transnumerik.
Samira Njoya
The new law allows investors to acquire assets such as land and mining concessions using cryptocurrencies. It follows the adoption of Bitcoin as a legal tender in the country and the launch of a national cryptocurrency called Sango coin.
In the Central African Republic, the National Assembly passed, on Monday, May 29 a bill on the "tokenization" of natural resources, which allows investors to acquire assets such as land and mining concessions using cryptocurrencies.
The approval follows the adoption, in April 2022, of Bitcoin as a legal tender in the country and the launch of a national cryptocurrency (Sango Coin) a few months later. The new law "sets the framework for the use of bitcoin and Sango virtual currencies in the investment process, including by foreign nationals wishing to invest in mining, agrarian and forestry titles,” the bill reads. states
The bill adds that investors who purchase these titles "have the right to transfer all accruing annual profits abroad once they pay taxes and various duties.”
"The bill complements the law on cryptocurrencies and, by streamlining [the process], it makes it easy to raise funds for [...] the State [...] and local communities,” explained Guy Samuel Nganatoua, Chairman of the National Assembly's Economy and Finance Committee.
In July 2022, Central African President Faustin-Archange Touadéra announced that Sango coin would catalyze the tokenization of the country’s vast natural resources.
The bill that tokenizes natural resources is not supported by everyone, however. Opposition MPs on the joint commission boycotted the plenary session during which the bill was reviewed. They accused the government of facilitating the sales of the country’s natural resources to “mobs” instead of focusing on improving control to better capture revenues from those vital economic sectors.
In August 2022, the constitutional court ruled that it was “unconstitutional” to buy citizenship, e-residency, land, and natural resources in the country using Sango Coin. But, in October 2022, the president of this court, who also invalidated the presidential decrees setting up a committee to draft a new constitution, was nevertheless retired by an order of the Minister of Public Service.
Sango coin, whose launch coincided with the collapse of the global cryptocurrency market, has so far failed to attract much investor interest. The project also attracted criticisms from the IMF, the World Bank, and even the regional central bank (BEAC).
Critics deem the project unrealistic in a country where internet penetration is around 11% and the electrification rate is just 14.3%.
The United Nations now considers the Internet as a basic necessity in the same category as water and electricity. For some governments, the tool, which demonstrated its importance during the coronavirus pandemic, can become a threat to national security.
On the afternoon of Sunday, June 4, Senegal decided to “temporarily” suspend mobile Internet access. According to the Ministry of Communications and the Digital Economy, access is restricted during certain timeframes due to "the dissemination of hateful and subversive messages in a context where public order is disrupted in some areas.”
Since Thursday, May 1, riots have been taking place in several Senegalese towns. Thousands of young people have clashed with the police and gendarmerie to protest against the two-year prison sentence handed down to Ousmane Sonko, leader of the main opposition party (Pastef). The main opponent to President Macky Sall is considered by the Senegalese youth as the favorite for the February 2024 Presidential election. He was convicted for “perverting the youth” although he was brought before courts over rape and death threats charges.
For his sympathizers, the conviction which renders him ineligible for the upcoming election is a conspiracy to prevent him from running in an election in which he has a high chance of winning with flying colors.
VPNs can no longer be used to circumvent the measure
The temporary suspension affects 17,227,783 subscribers -per the latest figures from the national telecom regulator ARTP. This represents 96.78% of Internet users in Senegal, where the service is essential for cabs, delivery drivers, hairdressing salons, restaurants, online clothing stores, and so on.
In a press release, the association of ICT businesses called on the government to lift all the usage restrictions on instant messaging platforms to guarantee economic freedom since those tools are used by thousands of entrepreneurs to seek “life-saving incomes.”
The temporary mobile internet restriction comes two days after social media access was blocked in the country. The social media ban was issued to restrict the publication of mobilization calls and videos of clashes in several districts of Dakar, Ziguinchor, etc. The restrictions did not produce the desired effect, with most youth using VPNs to circumvent it.
On Friday, June 2, Proton VPN, a virtual private network service developed by Swiss company Proton Technologies AG, noted a huge 30,000% and counting increase in VPN registrations from Senegal.
"This is in line with what we've seen during unrest or geopolitical crises in recent years in Iran, Turkey, and even Russia. The figures we're seeing are comparable to those we saw in Senegal in March 2021. At that time, similar censorship led to a 20,000% increase in registrations," said the company.
Muriel Edjo
Nowadays, social networks are no longer simple chatting tools. They can become powerful propaganda tools. Fearing the use some may make of it, governments have sometimes taken extreme measures like banning those networks.
Since the night of Thursday, June 1, access to the social networks Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Youtube is restricted in Dakar and several other cities across Senegal. By the afternoon, people were already experiencing difficulties in communicating easily on these platforms. Some users thought that it was caused by network disruptions. However, the social media block was confirmed by NetBlocks, an Internet governance watchdog, on its Twitter account.
The ban comes as clashes between security forces and youth groups have escalated in several districts of Dakar, Ziguinchor, Mbour, and Kaolack since yesterday. This conflict came after the announcement, on Thursday morning, that Ousmane Sonko, president of the opposition party Patriotes africains du Sénégal pour le travail, l'éthique et la fraternité (Pastef), had been sentenced to two years in prison for corrupting the youth. Ousmane Sonko has been on trial since 2020 for rape and death threats against one Adji Sarr. He was acquitted of the rape charges and sentenced for another crime, making him ineligible for the February 2024 presidential election.
On May 8, Sonko's eligibility for the presidential election was jeopardized by an initial six-month suspended prison sentence for defamation against the Minister of Tourism, Mame Mbaye Niang.
In a statement by Interior Minister Antoine Félix Abdoulaye Diome, the social network access restrictions were to prevent "the dissemination of hateful and subversive messages". In a press release issued on Thursday afternoon, the Pastef national office called on "the Senegalese people" to "take to the streets" and asked the army and national police to join them.
By blocking access to social networks, the government wants to prevent any mobilization by Ousmane Sonko. Indeed, throughout his legal battle in the Adji Sarr case, he used those tools to rally his supporters, claiming that the rape case is a plot by President Macky Sall's government to oust him from the race for power.
Facebook and Twitter were used on several occasions to relay the demonstrations and grassroots actions carried out by his young supporters. The videos published have sometimes contributed to escalations, resulting in deaths and material destruction during demonstrations.
Muriel Edjo
The Kenyan government is stepping up its efforts to accelerate the country's digital transformation. To achieve its objectives, the executive is counting on the support of international partners.
Korea Trade Centre (KOTRA) will support Kenya in the development of a master plan to guide the creation of the five digital cities selected by President William Ruto (Lamu, Dongo Kundu, Athi River, Sagana, and Naivasha). For that purpose, on Monday, May 29, in Nairobi, the Kenyan Ministry of ICT and Digital Economy and the KOTRA signed a memorandum of understanding.
The agreement also provides for the implementation of a smart mobility system encompassing an intelligent transport network using smart driving licenses.
According to ICT Principal Secretary John Tanui, the partnership is part of the government's strategies to create an enabling environment for innovation and emerging technologies. The Kenyan government "has played an enabling environment through various legal and regulatory frameworks to spur Kenya’s digital economy such as the National ICT Policy, Digital Economy Blueprint and National ICT Master Plan (2022-2032), among other policy interventions,” said John Tanui.
Indeed, when he came to power in September 2022, President William Ruto vowed his ambition to leverage digital tools for socioeconomic development. To this end, he planned various investments aimed at making the country a benchmark for digital transformation in Africa by 2027. Digital investments supporting this vision have been estimated at Ksh40 billion ($334 million).
The Smart Cities project should not only improve citizens' quality of life but also provide fertile ground for economic growth and job creation. It will offer solutions to the country's energy challenges by, among other things, implementing the Internet of Things (IoT) to strengthen ecosystems and enhance new technologies.
Samira Njoya
In the current digital age, accurate population data is a strategic asset to guide government planning. It informs the most effective actions to be taken before, during, or after any situation with direct or indirect consequences on the lives of millions of individuals.
Earlier today, Togo announced an agreement with French companies Atos and IDEMIA, for the development of a national electronic identification system. The two companies will design, build, test, and deploy a biometric solution that captures and process iris, face, and fingerprint data. On the sidelines of the GITEX Africa trade fair, taking place in Marrakech from May 31 to June 2, 2023, Alpha Barry, CEO of Atos Africa, said: "The biometric e-ID solution will play a crucial role in Togo's digital transformation and national development. Atos is committed to providing a reliable and secure solution that meets the needs of both government and citizens."
The digital solution will include a citizen portal, a mobile application, cybersecurity solutions, a central biometric system, enrolment kits, and a personalization system for the new electronic identity cards. It is a turnkey, integrated end-to-end solution to be built on a scalable infrastructure to meet Togo's current and future needs.
The French companies explain that the project also entails the opening of an Atos subsidiary in Togo to ensure the transfer of knowledge and skills to local staff to guarantee the independent and efficient operation of the system over the long term.
The national electronic identification system will support the national "e-ID Togo" project, which aims to allocate a unique identification number (UIN) to every resident in Togo. Thanks to the UIN and the biometric data collected, Togo will create a centralized, secure, and reliable database that will serve as a reference for verifying the identity of beneficiaries of public, private, or social services.
The project is part of the West African Unique Identification Program for Regional Integration and Inclusion (WURI), with an overall budget of $500 million financed by the World Bank.
Let’s note that the agreement was announced on the sidelines of the GITEX Africa trade fair being held in Marrakech (May 31-June 2).
Adoni Quenum, Marrakech
On January 13, 2022, the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) was officially launched in West Africa. Despite its impressive benefits, this innovative solution is yet to be widely adopted.
On Monday, May 29, Kenya’s President, William Ruto (photo) called on his peers to take action for the widespread adoption of the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS). He asked them to encourage central and commercial banks to join the system. The official made the call during the African Private Sector Dialogue on the African Continental African Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) held in Nairobi.
“It is also imperative that we proactively seek a resolution to the disparities in currencies and the consequential impediments it poses to intra-African trade. Trade cannot take place without efficient and unified payment systems. [...] There is a mechanism where all our traders can trade in the local currency and we leave it to the Afreximbank to settle all the payments. We do not have to look for dollars; our businessmen will concentrate on moving goods and services and leave the arduous task of currencies to Afreximbank,” he said.
The PAPSS was launched in January 2022, one year after the operationalization of the AfCFTA. It aims to link African markets, enabling instant cross-border payments in local African currencies, whether for purchases, money transfers, salary payments, share trading, or high-value commercial transactions. According to Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo, PAPSS is expected to save Africa 5 billion a year in payment transaction costs. However, most African countries are yet to embrace that innovative system. To date, only nine central banks, 40 commercial banks, and four switches have joined the PAPSS network.
For William Ruto, it is therefore urgent to take the first steps to get rid of the US dollar and mobilize for the adoption of PAPSS.
Samira Njoya
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
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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