Ghana leads four other African countries to sign SATA declaration on data and digital identity interoperability
Date: 2023-04-30
Ghana has joined four other African countries to sign as the
founding members of the Smart Africa Trust Alliance (SATA) declaration on
data and digital identity interoperability.
They are; Gabon, Guinea, Tunisia, and Zimbabwe.
The five countries signed and adopted the
declaration at Ministerial Breakfast organised by Estonia ICT Cluster and SATA
on Thursday, April 27, 2023, in Zimbabwe.
Communications and Digitalisation Minister,
Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, who signed the declaration on behalf of the government of
Ghana, said during her keynote address that the development will improve the
uptake and reach of public digital services, private sector integration, and
national digital platforms patronage.
“The SATA [declaration] also will enhance
additional revenues from higher service and platform usage and ensure
compliance with requirements from people and companies moving/doing business
across borders. More so, it will reduce government bureaucracy when working or
traveling in another country, save time and money, create job and
entrepreneurial opportunities, as well as provide safer and better service
experience in digital services and commerce,” she added.
The SATA declaration was developed to establish
the SATA governance arrangements and launch SATA operations and enable
interoperability with Europe and other regions of the world.
SATA is a collaborative initiative aimed at
fostering trust and promoting secure and responsible digital transformation in
Africa by bringing together various stakeholders, including governments,
private sector organizations, civil society, and academia, to collectively
address the challenges and opportunities associated with digitalization and
innovation on the African continent.
Fully aligned with Digital Public Goods (DPG)
principles, SATA further aims to contribute to reaching the five-year
objectives (2021-26) of the DPG Alliance through the development and implementation
of standards, platforms, and solutions to accelerate the realization of
Africa’s single digital market with “trust” through cross-border use of digital
identities and data.
