Digital African Summit urges enhancement of digital cooperation between African countries.

The participants in the Digital African Summit on Wednesday strongly recommended enhancing digital cooperation between African countries.

 “The inter-African digitization initiatives are determining Africa’s future. The responsibility for bridging the digital divide lies solely with African countries,” said the Minister of Digitization and Statistics, Hocine Cherhabil in his presentation entitled “Governance.”

Speaking at a panel of African stakeholders of the digital world, UN officials, and the diplomatic corps accredited in Algeria, the minister “has strongly recommended continuing the African integration process under the entry into force of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).”

The minister referred to “the project of the trans-Saharan fiber optic backbone linking Algeria to Nigeria, which will contribute to the development of digitalization in the continent.”

“Algeria has fulfilled its fulfillments by deploying the fiber optic cable to provide southern borders with Niger with very high-speed Internet,” he said.

For his part, the Minister of Post and Telecommunications, KarimBibiTriki, said the event was an opportunity to bring together in one place national players with those from other African countries to discuss the development of digitalization in the continent.

He highlighted the significant progress made by Algeria in the digitization of the administration, its interoperability, and the facilities provided by digitization, calling the Algerian actors and those of other African countries to cooperate more to succeed together in the digital transformation of the continent.

The Minister Delegate to the Prime Minister in charge of the Knowledge Economy and Startups, YacineOualid El Mahdi, made a presentation on Algeria’s experience in promoting startups and Government efforts in this area.

He focused on the various measures and provisions for the benefit of startups to enable them to contribute effectively to the socio-economic and technological development after the Covid-19 pandemic.