By: Kanto
Kai Okanta
Togo and Nigeria have
explored cooperation on data hosting and digital infrastructure to strengthen
their capacity to develop and use artificial intelligence (AI), during the
World Bank Group’s Global AI & Digital Summit in Seoul, South Korea.
Togo’s Minister of Public
Sector Efficiency and Digital Transformation, Cina Lawson, said she discussed
the opportunities with her Nigerian counterpart, Dr ‘Bosun Tijani, as part of
wider conversations on accelerating digital transformation across West and
Central Africa.
The discussions took place
against the backdrop of the Cotonou Declaration, a shared commitment by 22 West
and Central African countries to accelerate digital transformation.
Lawson said the regional
discussions extended the ambition of turning digital initiatives into services
and opportunities that reach millions of people.
During the summit’s “Closing
the Gap” plenary, she shared Togo’s experience of applying AI to concrete needs
and emphasised the importance of sustained investment in connectivity, local
expertise and public institutions.
“A connected school must
give students new ways to learn. Digital public services must be accessible to
the people who need them,” Lawson said in a LinkedIn post.
She said investment in
infrastructure and people was essential to enabling African countries to
develop solutions that reflected local realities and bring them to scale.
Lawson also joined fellow
ministers, entrepreneurs and development partners at the three-day summit to
discuss how countries could translate digital transformation ambitions into
practical outcomes.
She thanked the World Bank
Group, South Korean hosts and fellow participants for the discussions,
stressing that the next step was to turn the exchanges into investments,
stronger local expertise and services that make a measurable difference in
people’s lives.
