At Cyber Africa Forum, Africa’s tech ministers push for sovereign data infrastructure, enhanced cybersecurity

Tech ministers from Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, and the Republic of Congo have announced a unified digital agenda focused on sovereign data infrastructure, large-scale youth training, enhanced cybersecurity, and accelerated startup growth.

They believe this collaborative approach will distinguish their countries within Africa’s tech ecosystem and pave the way for a digital future that is less dependent and more defensible

Speaking on a panel during the recently concluded Cyber African Forum in Cotonou, the ministers agreed that Africa’s digital economy must be built by Africans, for Africans, and it must be resilient, inclusive, and globally competitive.

“Every action we have taken is rooted in solving real problems for our citizens,” said Aurelie Adam Soule Zoumarou, Benin’s Minister of Digital Affairs. “Without trust in digital services, adoption doesn’t follow. That’s why we embedded cybersecurity at the foundation of all our digital projects.”

Throughout the hour-long conversation, ministers dissected a decade of reforms, drew sharp lines under sovereignty concerns, and aligned on the role of state policy in enabling African tech entrepreneurship and innovation.

Building digital economies from First Principles

The panel served as a strategic review of how African governments have responded to the global shift toward digitisation. With over 70% of their population under 35, the stakes are high. Benin, for example, began its digital overhaul in 2016. Minister Zoumarou described it as a cascade of infrastructure investments designed to “open up” the country digitally.

“We first cleaned up our foundational tech stack,” she said. “Then we invested in public service platforms, built cybersecurity frameworks, and created digital agencies to execute the state’s vision.”

Benin now runs interoperable service platforms that allow citizens to access documents and government services online. The government also constructed an independent cybersecurity agency that participates in the design of every digital project. 

Côte d’Ivoire, meanwhile, is doubling down on digital sovereignty, said Ibrahim Kalil Konaté, Minister of Digital Transition and Digitalisation. The country is building its sovereign data centers, crafting an AI strategy, and preparing to centralise sensitive ministry data—including finance, health, and education—within its borders.

“We can’t talk about AI and smart governance when 97% of our data is stored abroad,” Konaté said. “Our aim is to store, protect, and process our data on African soil.”

From demographic dividend to workforce strategy

Across the board, ministers stressed one strategic truth: no infrastructure matters if young people are not equipped to use it.

Léon Juste Ibombo, Congo’s Minister of Posts, Telecommunications, and Digital Economy, noted that 66% of Congolese youth now access the internet via mobile, up from 19% in 2019.

“We are training 1,200 young people in digital and emerging technologies in partnership with the World Bank, and we aim to scale this to 10,000,” he said. “Digital skills are the fifth pillar of our national development strategy.”

Congo’s broader digital transformation plan, Congo Digital 2030, is underpinned by skill training and five other pillars: governance, infrastructure, public services, innovation, and inclusion. Ibombo emphasised that recent reforms—such as elevating research and innovation to a standalone ministry—reflect a government rethinking its digital posture from the ground up.

Benin has followed a similar path, using digital classrooms, university networks, and early exposure programs to introduce students to IT literacy at scale.

“From the primary level, we’re exposing children to digital tools in safe environments,” said Zoumarou. “Our goal is to eliminate future digital gaps by starting today.”

Private sector inclusion: From regulation to opportunity

Ministers across the panel repeatedly addressed the private sector as not just service providers but as co-architects of Africa’s digital economy.

“No one wants to invest in a country where there’s regulatory chaos,” said Benin’s Zoumarou. “We modernised our legal frameworks to give clarity to private actors and unlock investment.”

Côte d’Ivoire passed a Startup Act to support tech entrepreneurs, allowing the state and private sector to jointly select and back promising startups. According to Konaté, the country has funded multiple startups to attend global events like VivaTech, enabling exposure to investors and partnerships.

“Our startup committee lets entrepreneurs pitch their projects directly to government and investors,” Konaté said. “We’ve had three years of consecutive support now. The ecosystem is growing.”

Congo’s Ibombo cited the example of NokiNoki, a last-mile logistics startup that raised capital through government and international backing.

“We don’t want to train youth just to train them,” he said. “We want to fund their businesses, send them to China for immersion, and turn their startups into job engines.”

Cybersecurity: A non-negotiable national priority

All three countries addressed the growing threat of cyberattacks, with Congo revealing it had suffered a major breach targeting a national bank.

“If we didn’t have the right experts and institutions, it would’ve been catastrophic,” said Ibombo. “We lost some ground, but we responded quickly—within 19 hours.”

The urgency of securing digital infrastructure was echoed by Konaté of Côte d’Ivoire:

“The digital economy will collapse without trust. That’s why we created the National Cybersecurity Agency, now operational for six months, to defend our systems.”

Each minister affirmed that digitisation must go hand-in-hand with resilience,a theme that gained traction as panelists called for greater inter-country collaboration on cybersecurity.

Infrastructure: Sovereignty, speed, and scale

Infrastructure remains both the bedrock and bottleneck of Africa’s digital transformation. Côte d’Ivoire and Congo are building national data centers with backing from development banks and international partners.

“You cannot talk about artificial intelligence if you don’t have sovereign data,” said Congo’s Ibombo. “With the African Development Bank, we’re building a national data center and securing subsea cable landings.”

But ministers also warned that infrastructure must evolve with technology. Côte d’Ivoire, for instance, plans to refresh its infrastructure every 1–2 years, a pace that requires massive and sustained investment.

“We’re talking about 40–50 billion CFA  ($71 million- $89 million) in capex, then another 15–19 billion CFA ($26 million – $34 million) annually just for equipment upgrades,” Konaté noted. “That’s why we need public-private co-financing models.”

The next phase: Data governance, AI, and African cloud

Ministers previewed next-generation digital strategies, including national AI governance frameworks and plans for public cloud migration.

Côte d’Ivoire is consolidating data across five ministries as a pilot toward a unified national data infrastructure. Benin is mapping out a digital identity platform modeled on Estonia’s X-Road.

“We don’t want to keep catching up,” Zoumarou said. “We want to prepare now for the future.”

And Congo’s Ibombo hinted at further regional integration: “Kigali just adopted a pan-African digital strategy. We’ll soon align with it and launch our own national AI roadmap.”

As the session closed, the ministers agreed that Africa’s transformation will require cooperation, speed, and bold governance. “We can’t miss this train,” Ibombo said. “We must create our own digital railways built on our data, powered by our youth, and defended by our institutions.”

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