Central African countries are accelerating digital transformation through a mix of sovereign infrastructure investments and regional cooperation.
Gabon
Gabon has partnered with Rwanda to co-design its digital government ecosystem, marking a broader shift toward intra-African knowledge sharing in digital public infrastructure (DPI). In late August, Delegations from Gabon’s Ministry of Interior, Security and Decentralization spent two weeks in Kigali discussing AI policy, civil registration and identity digitization, cybersecurity, data protection, interoperability, and online service delivery—topics central to building a unified citizen portal.
The country plans a pilot digital government platform involving five ministries starting in December, building on its 2024 launch of a new biometric national ID that authorities describe as a cornerstone of its transformation strategy. Rwanda’s Irembo platform, operating since 2015 as a single entry point for dozens of public services, is the reference model; Kigali now positions DPI as a continental growth strategy and has hosted multiple delegations seeking similar capabilities.
Gabon’s Ministry of Digital Economy brought digital public services to the provinces on September 1 with new Wi-Fi-enabled service counters in Makokou, Ogooué-Ivindo. The initiative advances a 100-day roadmap aimed at replacing paper processes with electronic document management across the country.
The Republic of Congo
In March, the Republic of Congo approved a $39.3 million budget for its 2026 Digital Transformation Acceleration Project (PATN). Key initiatives include expanding rural broadband, modernizing civil registries, launching a single public-services portal, connecting major universities, and training 1,200 youth in digital skills.
The push targets critical development gaps: despite broad network coverage, internet penetration stands at just 47.3%. Additionally, Congo ranks 166th globally in the U.N. E-Government Index and sits in the second-lowest category of the ITU’s Global Cybersecurity Index, driven by weaknesses in technical capacity and skills development.
Cameroon
In Cameroon, digital sovereignty is taking concrete shape through a $75 million investment by Cybastion to build an AI‑ready data center and dedicated power plant in Douala. The project targets computing capacity and reliable electricity, while reducing dependence on foreign hosting for sensitive public data.
It aligns with Cameroon’s wider agenda for a sovereign national data center, cloud park, security operations center, and national AI strategy, as well as a push to establish a national interoperability infrastructure to knit together identity, payments, and administrative systems. State operator CAMTEL has been mandated to build the technical backbone for interoperability across public digital platforms, reinforcing the push for trusted, integrated services.
The Central African Republic
The Central African Republic is engaging the World Bank on the Central African Digital Integration Program (CARDIP) to improve connectivity, cross‑border data flows, and e‑commerce enablement. At a regional level, West and Central African ministers adopted the Cotonou Declaration in November 2025, setting 2030 targets for near‑universal broadband, interoperable DPI (ID, payments, data exchange), and harmonized cybersecurity and AI governance.
African digital infrastructure platform WIOCC Group secured a combined $300 million investment from the Africa Finance Corporation and Saudi Arabia’s Vision International to accelerate data centers, fiber networks, and subsea connectivity that underpin DPI and AI workloads. The UAE has also pledged $1 billion to implement DPI and AI projects across the continent, reflecting growing external capital for Africa’s digital backbone.
Assessments highlight that foundational digital ID systems in Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Rwanda are reshaping access to finance, with eKYC onboarding costs falling by up to 90% and cross‑border remittance fees dropping from around 9% to under 3% as interoperable ID and payment rails expand. In Ethiopia and Nigeria, biometric ID integration has accelerated female account ownership by nearly 40 percentage points, narrowing long‑standing gender gaps in mobile money access.
