APA- Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) African ministers in charge of communications and information communications technology have passed new decisions, aimed at accelerating Africa’s digital transformation, boosting socio-economic development, creating jobs and improving the lives of people across the continent.
The decisions were made on Tuesday at the conclusion of the 5th Specialized Technical Committee (STC) meeting on Communications and Information Communications Technology (ICT) in Africa.
According to a statement issued by the African Union (AU), the ministers have expressed commitment to promote the nexus between digitalisation, climate change, infrastructure and energy to maximize the benefits of digital solutions.
The ministers also vowed to rally for the adoption of the digital transformation in Africa and its implementation framework as a flagship project of the AU Agenda 2063 at the African Union Summit to be held in 2024.
The statement said the ministers also underscored the importance of securing press freedoms and setting up an enabling environment that allows the media to re-frame the African narrative with solutions-oriented perspectives.
At the STC, the ministers committed to rally more actions to among others support implementation of continental digital strategies and frameworks adopted by AU policy organs, pursue more ratification of the AU convention on Cyber security and personal data protection which entered into force in June this year.
The ministers further expressed commitment to provide regular reports using the digital transformation strategy performance and reporting dashboard and implement the self-capacity assessment tool for technical support to develop national data policies and systems aligned to the continental data policy framework.
The statement noted that the ministers have also vowed to develop national child online safety and empowerment policy in line with the continental policy framework and include provisions on data flows in the negotiations of African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) protocols on digital trade.
They further noted the need to strengthen cooperation between national communications and ICT regulatory authorities in Africa to collectively respond to new challenges emanating from the increased convergence of services.
MG/as/APA