By: Nana
Appiah Acquaye
The African
Telecommunications Union (ATU) has called for stronger protection of critical
civilian digital infrastructure as Africa seeks to strengthen digital
sovereignty, infrastructure resilience and the public interest.
ATU Secretary General John
Omo shared Africa’s perspective on protecting critical civilian digital
infrastructure during a High-Level Breakfast Roundtable held in New York as
part of the second Digital Cooperation Day.
The roundtable was organised
by the United Nations Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies (UN-ODET)
during the 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly.
The discussion examined how
institutions can safeguard digital sovereignty, strengthen the resilience of
digital infrastructure and ensure that digital systems continue to serve the
public interest.
Omo framed Africa’s response
around three connected principles: agency, resilience and the public interest.
The discussion focused on the importance of domestic data centres and cloud
hosting, cross-border fibre infrastructure and Internet Exchange Points, as
well as the protection of digital systems that communities and economies rely
on every day.
The engagement also builds
on a partnership between ATU and UN-ODET signed in July 2026 to advance
cooperation in artificial intelligence capacity building and digital public
infrastructure.
Under the partnership, the
organisations are working to support secure and open-source architectures for
digital identification, electronic payments and regional data exchanges.
The discussions in New York
highlight the growing focus on strengthening Africa’s capacity to build and
protect the digital infrastructure underpinning its economies, while ensuring
that emerging technologies and digital public systems remain resilient and
aligned with the public interest.
