Comoros to implement digital govt program with $10M AfDB grant

The Union of the Comoros is set to execute a digital public infrastructure (DPI) project thanks to €9.51 million (US$10.4 million) financial support from the African Development Bank (AfDB).

The AfDB announced on October 1 that its Board of Directors has given the greenlight for the funding.

Of the €9.51 million, 4.02 million is provided by the African Development Fund, while 5.49 million comes from the Bank’s Transition Support Facility.

Dubbed Project to Support Digitization of the Comorian Economy, the project is designed to improve the governance, quality, affordability and accessibility of relevant public services offered to users, as well as set up a digital government system “through the construction and operationalization of a new data centre and the existing secondary data centre, and an incubator.”

The entire project is estimated to cost a total of 22.53 million (US$ 25 million).

Per the announcement, a private operator will be hired within the framework of a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) deal for the operation, marketing, maintenance and expansion of the data centres and “to mobilize private expertize and additional financing over time to relieve public expenditures.”

Among other things, the project will see the putting in place of a comprehensive digital administration platform, the development of digital services, and a digital public payment system, as well as interoperability and data exchange platform.

The project Incubator component will enhance conditions for digital innovation and entrepreneurship, and a National Authority for the Protection of Personal Data and Access to Information will also be created to ensure data protection.

It is expected that at the end of the project, the digital transformation journey in the three-island nation should be a step ahead, making it possible for citizens to easily have access to a broad range of digital government and private sector services.

In the past ten years, Comoros has been implementing a six-pillar strategy for the digitalization of public services, even though much progress has not been recorded.

The AfDB has also been supporting other African countries to development DPI infrastructure such as in the domain of digital payments.

Article Topics

Africa  |  Comoros  |  data protection  |  digital economy  |  digital public infrastructure  |  government services  |  interoperability  |  public-private partnerships