Brazzaville, Congo: The
Smart Africa Alliance has officially launched the Smart Africa Digital Academy
(SADA) in Kintele International Conference Center in the presence of ICT Ministers
from 18 members state of the Alliance.
SADA
is a pan-African dynamic learning ecosystem to improve digital skills
qualifications, employability, and meet the emerging talent needs of African
citizens.
Since its start of operation in August 2020,
focusing on the CBDM module, SADA has trained over 2000 policy and
decision-makers across 26 countries in trending digital transformation topics
including Artificial Intelligence Use Cases, 5G Connectivity, Data Protection
& Privacy, Rural Broadband Policies, Security Technologies, Regulatory and
Innovative Sandboxing Environments, Data Centers and Cloud, Digital Identity
for Underserved, ePayment, etc. The objective is to reach over 22000 trained
beneficiaries by 2023, supported by the SADA In-country implementation wave.
SADA seeks to complement existing platforms,
content, and initiatives by bringing together a cross-section of players within
the capacity-building ecosystem. So far, SADA has collaborated with the
International Telecommunication Union, the World Bank, GIZ, IEEE, GSMA, Intel
Corporation, Microsoft, HPE, Google, Ericsson, Rohdes & Schwartz, to name a
few.
Having obtained initial funding from the German
Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in collaboration
with the World Bank to implement the AReg4DT
(Agile Regulations for Digital Transformation)
SADA will focus on implementing National Digital Academies to support the
uniquely identified digital skills priority needs at the national level. The
current countries for implementation are Benin, Burkina Faso, Congo,
Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Rwanda, and Tunisia.
Addressing the audience during the launch in
Congo, the Chief Executive Officer of Smart Africa, Lacina Koné said “Skilling a billion citizens may seem an
impossible task. As a multi-stakeholder coalition, SADA will achieve this
through the powers of ownership, collaboration, and partnership to define a
sustainable environment for skills development. We call for all our country
members state, private sector, development partners, and any interested
stakeholder to support the SADA initiative to join this ambitious yet
achievable program”.
SADA in Congo will be run with the African
Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research (CARIA) in the capital city
Brazzaville focusing on Policy Makers, Youth, and Professionals.
Additional countries are expected to launch
their National Digital Academies in the next coming months.
With a vision to create a single digital market
in Africa by 2030, the Smart Africa Alliance will ensure an all-inclusive
digital transformation by building the digital skills of African citizens.
