Africa aims to establish a single digital market to accelerate the harmonisation of legislation, cross-border digital services, and regional digital economies, building on the African Union's Digital Transformation Strategy (2020-2030).
This is one of the key outcomes of the recently concluded 14th Connected Africa Summit (CAS) in Kenya, when governments and key ICT decision makers signed the declaration 'Africa's Digital Future: From Vision to Action.'
The Declaration was adopted by ministers, heads of delegations, African Union member state representatives and industry leaders.
Also, the Declaration promotes Africa’s local production of smart devices; semiconductors, green electronics, and the acceleration include Artificial Intelligence, data and cloud sovereignty.
On digital infrastructure and connectivity, emphasis is on accelerating 5G deployment, cross-border fibre highways and mobilising universal service funds for last-mile connectivity.
Participants at the conference also pledged to align their countries' laws on cyber security, telecom tariffs, data governance and digital trade.
The summit was presided over by Kenya's cabinet secretary, William Kabogo Gitau, from the Ministry of Information, Communications, and Digital Economy.
"CAS 2025 gave us a chance to reflect on the challenges blocking Africa’s journey to digital transformation and realize immense opportunities to harness. We have made a renewed commitment to forge more partnerships and enhance cross-border data transfers amongst other areas of collaboration," he said.
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