KIGALI, Rwanda - In a significant stride toward advancing its digital economy initiatives, the Smart Africa alliance and The Open Group have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to develop a unified Enterprise Architecture guide for the African continent.

By working together, The Open Group and the Smart Africa alliance will aim to promote, guide, and build capabilities on the development of a cohesive Government Enterprise Architecture framework. Both organizations will collaborate to conduct a nationwide survey and host focus groups to comprehensively grasp the present status of Government Enterprise Architecture within the member states.

They will also jointly devise a strategy for enhancing capabilities and proposing targeted actions pertaining to Government Enterprise Architecture and associated domains to foster capacity development.

This partnership emphasizes the Smart Africa central objective to pave the way for a unified single digital market.

Commenting on the partnership, Mr. Lacina Koné, CEO of Smart Africa, highlighted: “Another key step towards achieving a single digital market in Africa has been made by joining forces with The Open Group today to build a Government Enterprise Architecture guide for the continent. This is another testament of our multi-stakeholder approach.”

“Global collaboration is at the heart of The Open Group, and we’re delighted to be partnering with Smart Africa to advance digital transformation practices on the continent. Our partnership will bring together the collective expertise of our Members as we aim to accentuate architecture-based approaches to digital transformation in order to form a single, open, digital market,” said Steve Nunn, President and CEO of The Open Group.

This strategic partnership is a milestone in the ongoing commitment of both organizations to propel the digital transformation journey of the African continent. The collaboration will leverage their collective expertise, resources, and networks to create a significant and lasting impact on the region.