• Government launches a 2025–2029 national child online protection strategy with a $1.8 million budget.
• UNICEF and GSMA created the Africa Taskforce on Child Online Protection in October 2025 to harmonize continental standards.
• Zambia joins Nigeria and Ghana, which already adopted national policies on child cybersecurity.

Zambia has introduced a national strategy to protect children online as digital adoption accelerates amo

ng the country’s youth. The government aims to ensure safer and more responsible Internet access for minors.

The government launched the National Child Online Protection Strategy (2025–2029) on Monday, November 24. The document sets a roadmap to strengthen digital safety for children nationwide and to build a safer online environment for young users.

The government allocated $1.8 million to this plan. The strategy focuses on several pillars, including strengthened national policy coordination, development of digital skills, awareness programs for children and parents, and a structured collaboration framework connecting public, private and civil society stakeholders.

This initiative comes as Internet penetration grows quickly across Africa, especially among younger populations. UNICEF reports that African children rank among the fastest-growing digital user groups worldwide, which increases their exposure to cyberbullying, misinformation, online exploitation and harmful content.

These risks prompted UNICEF and GSMA in October 2025 to launch the Africa Taskforce on Child Online Protection (COP). The platform aims to harmonize protection efforts, deepen cooperation among states and promote shared digital safety standards across the continent.

In Zambia, recent national data on children’s Internet use remains limited. Authorities, however, recognize a steady rise in youth connectivity, which makes preventive, educational and regulatory measures urgent.

With this strategy, Zambia joins other African countries that have already implemented structured national child online safety policies. Nigeria and Ghana in recent years adopted legal frameworks and government programs dedicated to child cybersecurity.

If fully implemented, Zambia’s strategy could reduce minors’ exposure to digital risks and strengthen trust among families and schools in the use of online tools. Its success, however, will also depend on the development of an adapted legislative framework to ensure a safe, inclusive and protective digital environment for children.

Samira Njoya

• Edomatch records more than 50,000 downloads on Android.
• The start-up launched the platform in 2024 in Lomé.
• The app enables direct job applications and employer preselection through a single mobile interface.

Edomatch disrupts traditional recruitment in Togo by offering employers and job seekers a mobile platform designed to simplify hiring. The application aims to provide a fast, accessible and low-cost solution for both sides of the labor market.

Edomatch is a digital tool that allows any job seeker—whether full-time, part-time or for temporary assignments—to apply online through its website or mobile app. The Lomé-based start-up launched the service in 2024 under the leadership of founder Chris Koehler.

“Our mission is to simplify and humanize the job search while helping companies find talent efficiently,” the start-up states. The application runs on iOS and Android, and it has already surpassed 50,000 downloads on the Play Store.

The platform enables users to create profiles, review available offers and apply in a few clicks. Companies can publish job postings and preselect candidates directly from the app. This structure reduces administrative steps and accelerates recruitment processes.

Edomatch differentiates itself through its broad sector coverage, which includes commerce, logistics, services, construction and hospitality. The app uses geolocation tools that allow candidates to identify job postings near their homes. This feature supports local employability and reduces unnecessary travel.

The platform also facilitates professional integration for young people, inexperienced candidates and individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds. For companies, the application reduces time and resource costs by eliminating the need to publish across multiple channels, sort large volumes of CVs or rely on expensive intermediaries. Firms can quickly identify relevant profiles and access candidates available for immediate hire.

By combining an accessible mobile interface, a large pool of job listings and an inclusive orientation, Edomatch has the potential to transform Togo’s labor market. In an economy marked by informality and high unemployment, the platform could become a key tool for professional integration by making recruitment more transparent, efficient and equitable.

This article was initially published in French by Adoni Conrad Quenum

Adapted in English by Ange Jason Quenum

• Bluworks raises $1 million to expand in the Middle East and North Africa.
• The platform centralizes scheduling, attendance, administration and payroll into one system.
• Founder Hussein Wahdan previously held senior planning and performance roles at Jumia Egypt.

Hussein Wahdan targets a sensitive operational challenge inside companies: team organization and the management of employee-related data. His solution aims to meet a growing demand for structure and visibility in workforce administration.

Wahdan is an Egyptian tech entrepreneur and the chief executive of Bluworks, a human-resources technology start-up he founded in 2022 with COO Farah Osman. The company recently raised $1 million to scale across the Middle East and North Africa.

Bluworks operates an online platform that manages HR functions for organizations with large workforces or variable schedules. The tool unifies scheduling, attendance tracking, administrative management and payroll processing in one environment. The company intends to reduce manual workloads and centralize all employee-related data.

The scheduling function enables managers to create and adjust team timetables and to share them without external spreadsheets or scattered updates. The system updates schedules in real time, which limits gaps between instructions and on-site execution.

The real-time attendance module shows who is working, who is missing and who arrives outside expected hours. The platform uses these data points to calculate hours, leave and payroll. The leave module automates requests, approvals and validation workflows, which gives managers a consolidated view of available staff.

The platform also includes a system for bonuses and penalties and a digital HR file for each employee. These tools aim to structure information, avoid double entries and improve operational clarity. The payroll engine connects to all other modules and automatically calculates monthly salaries using recorded data.

Wahdan’s professional path informs Bluworks’ direction. He earned an economics degree in 2010 from the American University in Cairo and an MBA in 2018 from IE Business School in Spain.

He began his career in 2010 as a corporate banking associate at CIB Egypt before joining Jumia Egypt from 2018 to 2022. He first worked as a business planning manager and later became head of planning and performance in 2020.

This article was initially published in French by Melchior Koba

Adapted in English by Ange Jason Quenum