With the memorandum, the two parties intend to join forces for effective digital actions. It demonstrates their understanding of the likely failure of unconcerted actions. 

Smart Africa Alliance and the Digital Cooperation Organization inked, Monday (June 6), a memorandum of understanding to accelerate digital transformation in Africa. Under the memorandum, the two parties notably intend to exchange digital solutions and knowledge, create a commercial environment conducive to the development of innovative firms and empower women, the youth, and innovative entrepreneurs.

The intended actions will complement the measures already taken by Smart Africa Alliance and DCO member countries to boost connectivity (a basic requirement for effective digital transformation), accelerate digitalization in strategic socio-economic sectors, develop local digital talents and facilitate digital inclusion by 2030.  

According to Lacina Koné (photo, right), CEO of Smart Africa Alliance, the MoU “will increase a lot to south-south cooperation, specifically with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.”  He praised the partnership with a “like-minded organization” with whom the Smart Africa Alliance can collaborate on common objectives to enhance the growth of member countries’ economies. 

As  for Deemah Alyahya (photo, left), DCO Secretary-General,  she expressed her belief “in the power of collaboration with like-minded organizations to enable digital prosperity for all.”  

“We are very excited to activate our relationship and partnership. The digital economy is very fast in growth. We expected that by 2030, it is going to be more than 25 percent of the global GDP and now we know that by 2030, it is going to be 70 percent of the global GDP,” she added.

The memorandum was signed on the sidelines of the 2022 ITU World Telecommunication Development Conference currently being held in Kigali, Rwanda. The conference, which opened on June 6, will end on July 16. Smart Africa Alliance is a network of 32 African countries that share the common goal of leveraging the digital sector for development on the continent. Similarly, the Digital Cooperation Organization was founded by Bahrain in 2020 to facilitate a global and inclusive digital economy. Its membership includes Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia. 

Ruben Tchounyabe