Côte d’Ivoire launches national PKI to strengthen digital sovereignty

Côte d’Ivoire has deployed its first national public key infrastructure (PKI), giving the country a state‑managed root certification authority for securing electronic transactions.

Digital Transition and Technological Innovation Minister Djibril Ouattara made the announcement during a workshop in Abidjan‑Plateau reviewing the 2021–2025 National Cybersecurity Strategy and its proposed successor for 2026–2030, reports Ecofin Agency.

The new PKI replaces the country’s dependence on foreign certificate authorities and creates a domestic trust anchor for digital services. The move follows ANSSI‑CI’s recognition by the International Telecommunication Union and the International Organization for Standardization as Côte d’Ivoire’s national registration authority for object identifiers.

It also rests on the legal framework created by Law No. 2013‑546 on electronic transactions and related decrees issued in 2014 and 2016 covering cryptology, electronic signatures and digital archiving.

At the ID4Africa event in May, the Director General of Côte d’Ivoire’s National Agency for Information System Security (ANSSI), Guelpétchin Moussa Ouattara, described PKI as being as essential to digital identity systems as roads are to an economy.

“Cybersecurity for digital ID is not a matter of choice, but one of survival and sovereignty,” he said, warning that interconnected digital infrastructure requires continuous protection through governance, technology and human oversight.

Ouattara also emphasized zero-trust principles and argued that countries must build sovereign trust systems rather than rely entirely on external providers. “We don’t need to rent trust; we have to build our own trust systems that secure our critical infrastructure,” he said.

According to the Côte d’Ivoire government, the PKI now serves as the national root authority that certification authorities operating in Côte d’Ivoire can rely on. It is intended to secure electronic exchanges between government agencies, businesses and citizens.

It also supports trust service providers offering electronic signatures and digital identity services. No timeline has been given for when those providers will begin using the system. Côte d’Ivoire joins a growing group of African countries with national PKIs.

Benin, Rwanda and Kenya have operated their own root authorities since 2022, and Tunisia’s TUNTRUST is cited by the ITU as a regional example of PKI governance. Nigeria has taken steps to consolidate its digital identity system under the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) as it operationalizes its legal framework. NIMC is taking responsibility for the country’s PKI.

At the regional level, the Central Bank of West African States has issued a tender for a centralized PKI covering all eight members of the West African Monetary Union: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea‑Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo.

The Africa PKI Consortium (AfPKIC) is working on the African continent’s Public Key Infrastructure. Founding members were Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda, but several others have joined since, along with NGOs.

Article Topics

Africa  |  Côte d’Ivoire  |  digital identity  |  digital sovereignty  |  electronic-signature  |  PKI