Public Management (500)
Following the Covid-19 crisis, several countries accelerated their digital transformation projects and notably improved connectivity. They are also focused on improving cybersecurity and protecting personal data since their credibility will depend on their networks’ resistance to attacks and how they protect users’ data from abusive exploitation. Last January, during the cybersecurity summit in Lome, Togo, the UNECA invited African countries to collaborate for enhanced protection of their cyberspace.
In Niger, the national assembly approved Monday (May 23), the ratification of the African Union Convention on Cybersecurity and Personal Data Protection.
Their approval comes months after the government authorized the ratification during its January 13, 2022, ministerial council. This is probably why Niger is, since February 2022, on the African Union’s list of countries that have already ratified the convention.
The national assembly’s approval marks the end of the ratification process and brings to 13 the number of countries that have fully ratified the convention. Only two ratifications are still required for the convention to become effective in Africa.
According to government commissioner Youssouf Mohamed Elmouctar (photo), Niger’s membership in the cybersecurity and personal data protection convention will help the country set its cybersecurity and personal data protection objectives and guidelines. It will also help consolidate the existing framework to align it with the continental goals.
Indeed, the convention is in line with local authorities’ ambition to boost socio-economic development with digitalization. In doing so, they will need to protect personal data and secure their networks.
Following the Covid-19 crisis, several countries accelerated their digital transformation projects and notably improved connectivity. They are also focused on improving cybersecurity and protecting personal data since their credibility will depend on their networks’ resistance to attacks and how they protect users’ data from abusive exploitation. Since January 2022, many international cybersecurity summits have been organized in Africa.
Muriel Edjo
In 2018, Kenya launched a 5-year plan to improve its health offer by building new infrastructures and increasing the number of health professionals. To address the challenges still lingering, notably concerning healthcare access in remote areas, the country wants to leverage technology.
Kenya will soon roll out a nationwide telemedicine program to improve healthcare access, in remote areas particularly. In that regard, through its Communication Authority, the country set aside Ksh600 million (US$5. million) to fund the installation of telemedicine infrastructure in 20 public health institutions.
According to Joseph Sitienei, head of the Ministry of Health’s Health Service Management department, telemedicine “is the direction to go so that no part of the country feels left out in the provision of quality health services and especially to reduce the cost of seeking health care to the patients.”
In the mid-term review of Kenya Health Sector Strategic Plan 2018-2023, the Ministry of Health reported that the healthcare worker density for effective service delivery significantly improved compared to its level in 2018. In late 2020, it was over 20.6 healthcare workers (HCWs) per 10,000 population. Nevertheless, it was below the 23 HCWs per 10,000 population suggested by the WHO and Kenya’s target of 24.4 HCWs per 10,000 population.
In 2019, the country claimed it was meeting the World Health Organization (WHO)’s recommended number of healthcare institutions per 10,000 population. That year, the disclosed national density of healthcare institutions per 10,000 population was 2.2 while the WHO was recommending at least a density of two healthcare institutions per 10,000 population.
Although the national density is higher than recommendations, in fourteen counties (30% of the national territory), the density was below WHO recommendations. Specialists and reference hospitals are concentrated in major towns while rural populations mainly have access to clinics. With telemedicine, Kenya will allow its rural populations to gain easy access to specialists and reference hospitals. Currently, the program is in its pilot phase in Kenyatta and Isiolo public hospitals.
“If we cannot provide enough skilled staff in all our health facilities, we can surely take the skilled staff to the rural areas through telemedicine! It is time that we have teleconsultations and telereferrals. There is no other opportune time than now,” Dr. Joseph Sitienei explains.
Muriel Edjo
According to the World Bank, African countries must urgently train their youth on future needs, digital skills notably, to facilitate professional integration for millions of people. Most countries have taken the advice and are taking measures to develop local digital talents.
Morocco’s Oujda region will launch its center for collective intelligence by late 2022. Baptized Zone01 Oujda, the center will develop local digital talents. The partnership agreement for the creation of that center was signed by the region’s authorities and digital training institution 01Talent Africa on the sidelines of the 9th edition of Africities (May 17-21, 2022) in Kisumu, Kenya.
Zone01 Oudja will be hosted at Mohamed First University’s knowledge campus. The 500-student infrastructure will have three specific institutions. Namely, there will be a coding school and a programming school specifically dedicated to professionals- those serving regional and local administrations. The third institution will be a talent management agency whose main mission will be to provide IT services to local, regional and international partners by using the talents trained at the coding school.
The selection, open to under-18 Moroccans, will be a two-phase process (it is expected to start in the second half of 2022). During the first phase, pre-selected candidates will take a 4-week training. At the end of that training, a group problem-solving test will take place to select those who will take a 2-year digital training with a guaranteed job after the training.
The project is one of the Oujda region’s strategies to digitize its economy and boost its attractiveness. The region wants to train its youth in digital skills to help them find jobs and become important players in the local and national ecosystem with the digital transformation that is being accelerated everywhere. In that regard, the region has entered into strategic partnerships with the Ministry of Higher Education, the agency for economic development ADPS, the United Cities and Local Governments of Africa (UCLGA), and the Oujda regional investment center CRI.
Also, in January 2021, the CRI signed a memorandum of understanding with the Federation of Information Technology, Telecommunications and Offshoring (APEBI) for the accelerated development of offshoring and digital ecosystems in Oujda.
Ruben Tchounyabe
In 2020, amid the coronavirus pandemic, public services were seriously disrupted in several African countries. To protect both citizens and their governments against such occurrences, most countries are now accelerating their digital transformation projects.
Congo-Brazzaville and the European Union signed Thursday (May 19), a €15 million grant agreement to boost the digitization of public administration. The agreement was signed by Congo’s Finance Minister Rigobert Roger Andely (photo, right) and Giacomo Durazzo (photo, left), the EU ambassador to the country.
The grant will help Congo improve its digital infrastructure, and up its assistance and governance of the sector. This will boost the quality of the public services provided to the population, enhance their efficiency by reducing delays and corruption and improve public governance.
Digital transformation is the first “priority area” of the Multi-Annual Indicative Program (MIP) signed by the European Union and Congo-Brazzaville in December 2021. It is one of the first projects effectively financed by the EU under the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument – Global Europe (NDICI – Global Europe), an instrument replacing the European Development Fund (EDF).
For Congo-Brazzaville, digital transformation is a key component of the national strategy for the development of the digital economy, “Congo Digital 2025.” The country is intent on successfully implementing the national strategy (unveiled in August 2019) given the development issues it addresses.
Muriel Edjo
This year, at least two international meetings have gathered public and private actors involved in personal data protection in Africa. The issue is ever-pressing, given the weakness of several African countries in a digital era marked by increased use of the internet and information systems.
Chad, Niger, and Morocco signed, Thursday (May 12), a data protection knowledge sharing agreement. Morocco was represented by the National Control Commission for the Protection of Personal Data (CNDP) while Chad was represented by the ANSICE and Niger by the HAPD.
Under the agreement signed on the sidelines of the Network of African Data Protection Authorities (NADPA/RAPDP)’s general assembly, CNDP will share its experience with the other two parties.
For ANSICE director-general Abdel-Nassir Mahamat Nassour, the agreement was signed because of the urgent need to find means and solutions to protect citizens’ data and meet their various demands. The same view was shared by Sanady Tchimaden Hadatan (photo), president of Niger’s HAPDP.
With the acceleration of digital transformation in Africa, residents are called to be connected to the internet and information systems more often. They, therefore, generate an increasing amount of personal data, which is prized by governments and companies. It is now urgent to protect that data since they are a valuable commodity in the digital era. If not, the data can be subjected to abusive exploitation by national and international parties.
Muriel Edjo
Innovative entrepreneurship is considered an alternative solution to unemployment problems in Africa. With the services it facilitates, it is also a major wealth-creator with strong potential. In Egypt, the government wants to capitalize on its potential and reach its 2030 development goals.
In Egypt, President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi instructed a set of measures to facilitate the creation and operation of startups in the country. The top government official instructed the measures during a meeting, Sunday (May 15), with Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and ICT Minister Amr Talaat.
To remove obstacles to the creation of startups and companies, the President ordered Amr Talaat to facilitate the creation of companies through a dedicated digital platform. The ICT Minister was also asked to take measures to allow the creation of virtual companies so that entrepreneurs can save creation costs since they will no longer be bound by the requirement to have a physical headquarters. Facilitations are also planned for virtual companies in Egypt.
The other instructions given by President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi are aimed at easing the creation of one-person companies, expanding the establishment of free investment technological zones, and tax exemptions for start-ups. The activation of the whitelists of specialized firms authorized to import electronic components was also instructed.
The national development strategy, Egypt Vision 2030, makes entrepreneurship an alternative solution for youth unemployment. In that regard, the country is taking measures to revive the entrepreneurship drive. Even universities are mobilized to reach that goal. In its report "The Egyptian Startup Ecosystem Report 2021," the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) and Disrupt Africa estimated the number of startups active in Egypt to be 562 in 2021. With the new measures, this number will surely rise exponentially.
Muriel Edjo
The modernization of public administration is one of the key focuses of Egypt’s 2030 development strategy. To achieve the desired goals, the country is relying on digitization.
Egypt will extend the use of the automated payroll management system to the whole public sector by late 2022, according to Finance Minister Mohamed Maait (photo).
The information was revealed, Tuesday (May 10), when the Ministry of Finance was announcing the acceleration of the process. For Deputy Minister of Finance Mohamed Abdel Fattah, the system has already been successfully tested in 283 government agencies, including 64 in the new administrative capital, 205 in local communities, and 14 government bodies.
Minister Mohamed Maait explains that the automated system will guarantee accuracy in the calculation of civil servants’ salaries. It will also provide accurate research data for all salary-related decisions.
The automated system is the result of instructions given by President Abdel Fattah Al-Sissi in line with Egypt 2030, the country’s development strategy which focuses on the use of information technology to improve governance, enhance the efficiency of public services and boost economic growth.
Some 1,189 civil servants have already been trained on the use of the automated system. Also, the Ministry of Finance, which offers its technical assistance, plans an awareness campaign in collaboration with its partner eFinance.
Ruben Tchounyabe
Since 1996, Algerian authorities are stepping up efforts to protect their cultural heritage against vandalism, theft, concealment, and trafficking. The digital platform is one of the actions that will further protect the country’s cultural properties.
Algerian Minister of Culture Soraya Mouloudji launched Monday (May 9), Turathi.dz, a digital platform for the fight against illicit trafficking of cultural properties. Developed in collaboration with the US embassy, the platform will be the new tool to protect the country’s cultural assets.
For Ms. Soraya Mouloudji, the platform is a digital photo guide with detailed information on Algeria’s cultural properties most exposed to contraband and illicit trafficking. The properties listed on Turathi.dz include prehistoric items, sculpture, figurines, manuscripts, and funerary arts.
Despite the measures taken since 1996 to protect cultural assets, more than 35,752 items have been stolen, according to Algerian authorities. To enhance protection, the Ministry of Culture stepped up actions and even created a joint action plan to protect the cultural heritage from any type of damage. In 2019, the country signed a memorandum of understanding with the USA to limit or stop the export of archeological objects per the UNESCO 1970 convention.
In addition to protecting the cultural heritage, Turathi.dz can also be used as an educational tool since it lists and describes Algeria’s numerous cultural properties. Students and even researchers can use it for academic purposes.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
The coronavirus crisis accelerated digital transformation projects across Africa. Morocco, which is already a leader in digital governance is also following the trend with projects and initiatives to improve services offered to users.
Moroccan Pension Fund CMR is moving to improve its services and transparency with digital transformation. In that regard, last May 5, the pension fund signed a framework agreement with the Digital Development Agency (ADD), which will assist in the endeavor.
According to an official release, the signing ceremony was co-chaired by Finance Minister Nadia Fettah Alaoui (photo, right) and Ms. Ghita Mezzour (photo, left), Minister of Digital Transition.
With the framework agreement, ADD and the CMR want to cooperate for a successful digital transformation by implementing common advanced tech projects, interoperability, digital training, and the development of e-inclusion, the release indicates.
"The partnership confirms the two parties’ commitment to leveraging tech innovation for the improvement of services provided to citizens,” it continued.
ADD is a government agency launched in 2017 to implement the national digital transformation strategy as well as promote and vulgarize digital tools. In 2020, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs ranked Morroco as the seventh leading African country in terms of digital governance.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
The digitalization of trade processes helps avoid administrative delays. By rolling out the electronic phytosanitary certification platform, South Africa wants to reduce fraud and save time.
The South African Ministry of Agriculture presented its online phytosanitary certification system last May 9. It thus became the second African country to introduce such a certification system after Morocco (in 2020).
The platform accelerates the issuance of phytosanitary documents, which are necessary for the exportation of farm products. It also guarantees the credibility of the inspections carried out by the national plant protection organization NNPOZA while boosting the trust of foreign partners’ certification agencies, notably in European markets that have adopted the e-phytosanitary system.
According to a media advisory published by the Ministry on May 8, with the e-certification system, phytosanitary applications are fully managed online, the responses are automatic upon completion of the application. Also, applicants can track the status of their applications. The system reduces “fraudulent activities related to phytosanitary certificates,” the media advisory explains.
Once approved the certificate is issued and sent directly to the requester’s email. The latter can share it directly with trading partners who will, in turn, send it to the national plant protection agencies in exporting countries. The authenticity of those certificates can be verified via the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC)’s platform. Therefore, South African exporters will no longer face suspensions about the quality of their products. The issue used to delay the entrance of their products into destination countries because of the additional inspections required.
South Africa’s phytosanitary e-certification system is the result of a collaboration between the local government and the Netherlands. The process started in November 2019, with the dematerialization of phytosanitary procedures for grape exporters. Months later, in April 2020, citruses and other plant products were added to the list of farm products whose phytosanitary certificates can be requested online. In April 2021, the whole procedure was dematerialized.
“We are delighted to have reached this milestone within a short time and we also owe the existence of this system to our industry. We had extensive stakeholder consultations and ensured that there was awareness created and therefore a better opportunity to implement the painful process of change management with ease,” said Minister of Agriculture Thokozile Didiza.
For the government official, the next step will be to “further collaborate with the Netherlands on the boarding of animal products for exports and the imports of plants, animals and their products.”
“In line with our commitment towards achieving the ideals of agenda 2063 of the African Union, South Africa commits to extending our experiences to assist fellow African countries to also join and have e-certification systems. (...) This will also help us to broaden trade through the Africa Continental Free Trade Area, especially its annexure on sanitary and phytosanitary measures,” Didiza added.
Muriel Edjo
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To boost efficiency and improve decision-making, Algeria has embarked on a digitization program covering all of its Ministries. The digital platform announced will provide accurate information on the ongoing, suspended, or completed housing and urban development projects.
In Algeria, stakeholders can now monitor the completion rate of public housing projects through the Ministry of Housing’s official website. On Sunday, April 24, 2022, during a meeting to assess the Q1-2022 performance in the social housing sector, Housing Minister Mohamed Tarek Belaribi (photo) announced the launch of the digital platform enabling the feature.
The platform is a sort of directory of the various urban development and housing projects launched, ongoing, or suspended in the country. Decision-makers involved in a housing or urban development project are therefore advised to regularly update project data to give an accurate estimate of progress. In that regard, the country plans to train focus groups on how to provide the required information.
The digital platform was developed to support the monitoring and evaluation missions of project managers, housing directors, property management agencies, and sectoral officials in the housing segment.
According to Minister Mohamed Tarek Belaribi, the platform is the result of instructions given by the President of the Republic to accelerate the digitization of institutions supervised by the Ministry of Housing and update the national housing database. For the government official, the platform is crucial for the government because it will provide quality information to guide decision-making in due time.
Ruben Tchounyabe
During the COVID-19 lockdown period, 79% of Ghana’s retail business was carried out online. The growth of this innovative means has attracted scammers. The program announced is aimed at weeding them out of the segment.
Ghana’s Postal and Courier Services Regulatory Commission (PCSRC) announced Tuesday (April 26) the upcoming registration of e-commerce and logistics operators.
The program aims to create a secure online profile for the said operators to “root out” frauds and scams in that booming segment.
According to an official release signed by PCSRC executive secretary Hamdaratu Zakaria (photo), “a free-to-use electronic portal has already been developed to enable (...) the public to obtain directory information on all registered e-commerce traders and logistics companies (including courier services) in good standing with the PCSRC before doing business with them.”
The announcement comes days after the publication of an investigation by a local media, The Fourth Estate. According to the non-profit media launched by the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), crooks are forging the documents of duly registered companies to scam unsuspecting buyers. They also swindle goods worth millions due to clients’ inability to verify the authenticity of the documents they are presented.
For the PCSRC, the registration program will rid the segment of those shady practices at a time when domestic regulation is “complicated” by the “ongoing trade liberalization regime under the AfCFTA and ECOWAS.” The local platform is also integrated with the AfCFTA’s African Trade Gateway, a digital platform that provides market and due diligence information about counterparties. That way, Ghanaians can get information on whether foreign operators are legit or not while foreigners will avoid being scammed by selected legit Ghanaian operators.
The PCSRC release explains that in the future, the agency will work with other Ghanaian institutions to root out digital fraudsters wherever they operate.
According to conservative estimates by the Ghana E-Commerce Association, the country’s e-commerce market will grow from US$481 million in 2021 to US$674 million in 2025. Its size will also grow to 11 million users by that time.
Ruben Tchounyabe
Since 2020, most African governments are set on digitizing strategic sectors, including the public service. Within two years, Ghana, which has become one of the digitally-advanced countries, raised US$315 million for that purpose.
The World Bank approved, Thursday (April 28), a US$200 million loan to accelerate digital transformation in Ghana with a new project dubbed Ghana Digital Acceleration Project. The funding was announced in the same release published on the institution’s website.
According to the release, it will help “increase broadband access, enhance the efficiency and quality of selected digital public services, and strengthen the digital innovation ecosystem in Ghana to help create better jobs and economic opportunities.”
For Pierre Laporte (photo), World Bank Country Director for Ghana, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, “expanding digital access and adoption, enhancing digital public service delivery, and promoting digitally-enabled innovation is essential for Ghana’s digital transformation, which will help drive a robust post-COVID-19 recovery.”
Likewise, for Maria Claudia Pachon -Senior Digital Development Specialist of the World Bank and Task Leader of the new Project- the digitization of public services will “result in significant cost savings due to decreased travel and processing time to obtain services, as well as transaction costs such as manual entry errors, fraud, and corruption.”
The Ghana Digital Acceleration Project builds on the ongoing e-Transform Ghana project, which allows Ghana to become one of the most digitally advanced countries in Africa. In its latest report on the e-government development index, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) ranked Ghana the fifth in Africa, in 2020. At the same time, the country jumped from being the 143rd out of 193 countries worldwide in 2004, to the 101st place in 2020.
The new digital acceleration project supports regulatory change to create an environment that facilitates access to mobile and broadband internet for six million people, in underserved rural areas notably. It will also favor the digital inclusion of women and people with disabilities, enhance the local digital entrepreneurship ecosystem, improve startups’ growth and survival rate, facilitate smallholders’ involvement in data-driven agriculture and promote advanced digital innovation skills.
Muriel Edjo
In the past ten years, Morocco invested heavily in the implementation of its digital transformation strategy. With the experience and expertise of its new DCO partners, the country expects to bridge the gaps still remaining in its strategy.
The Digital Cooperation Organization (DCO) announced, Tuesday (April 26), Morocco’s membership in the organization. The constitutive act was signed by Mustapha Mansouri (photo), Moroccan ambassador to Saudi Arabia -DCO base country- raising the number of members of that organization to nine.
According to DCO secretary-general, Dima Al-Yahya, the new member has made significant progress in the implementation of its digital strategy and now makes public services more accessible to its citizens.
“Having a country that has so clearly prioritized digital transformation coupled with a thriving start-up and innovation ecosystem as a member state of the DCO will undoubtedly strengthen our collective strength and impact in creating a more inclusive global digital economy,” she added.
Joining the DCO is part of Morocco’s commitment to addressing socio-economic challenges, improving the business environment, and scaling up women, youth, and entrepreneurs' empowerment initiatives.
By adopting digital technologies, MENA countries can increase GDP per capita by at least 40%, manufacturing revenues per unit of factors of production by 37%, manufacturing employment by 7%, and the number of foreign tourists by 70%, a World Bank report estimates.
“Long-term unemployment rates could fall to negligible levels, and female labor force participation could double to more than 40 percent,” the report adds.
Ruben Tchounyabe