Zambia’s president: Digital economy will unlock Africa’s growth

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Africa must prioritize growing its digital economy to attract foreign investment, enhance economic growth, and create more job opportunities for its youth, says Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema.

In his opening remarks at the 2025 Digital Government Africa Summit in the capital Lusaka, Hichilema acknowledged the ongoing digitalization efforts across the continent but believes more can be done.

“We need a platform that will accelerate our agenda for growth, for economic expansion, more investment, and trade. For us to do that, we need digitization,” he stated.

Beyond attracting foreign investment, digitalization can boost intra-African trade, Hichilema added. While trade between African countries and global partners has flourished over the past decade, intra-African commerce remains limited.

According to Afrexim Bank, African nations traded goods and services worth $192 billion in 2023, accounting for just 15% of the overall trade. In comparison, Europe’s intra-regional trade share increased to 68% between 2022 and 2024, more than four times larger than Africa’s.

Digitalization can solve most of the challenges that hinder intra-regional trade. These include high costs and slow processes due to paperwork, as well as a lack of real-time data sharing. Payments present another barrier; when an African business purchases goods from another African country, the payment is first routed to correspondent banks in the U.S. or Europe, making it costly and slow. Digital payments, such as via scalable public networks like Bitcoin SV, settle the transactions instantly and directly.

At the same event, the SMART Zambia Institute (SZI) announced a new partnership with Zambian cloud solutions firm Inq and South African tech company Mezzanine to drive digital transformation in the country.

Under the partnership, the Zambian government will host its systems locally for full data sovereignty. The three entities will also support local digitalization projects across health, education, trade, and governance. The agreement will be based on the local kwacha, reducing currency volatility.

Nigeria joins UN’s Digital Public Goods Alliance

Elsewhere, Nigeria has joined dozens of governments, private enterprises, and public institutions in the Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA), an initiative backed by the United Nations to promote the use of open-source technologies.

Founded in 2019, DPGA is supported by the UNDP, UNICEF, and several governments. Members include countries such as France, Brazil, Estonia, and South Africa, as well as multilateral organizations like the Asian Development Bank and the International Telecommunications Union.

“Nigeria’s membership of the Digital Public Goods Alliance reinforces our commitment to building an open, inclusive, and collaborative digital ecosystem that empowers our people and drives sustainable growth,” commented Bosun Tijani, Nigeria’s Communications and Digital Economy Minister.

Nigeria has ramped up its digitalization efforts in recent years, and the adoption of digital public goods will guarantee that this process remains “transparent, interoperable, and globally connected,” Tijani added.

“Through this partnership, Nigeria is not only participating in a global movement but also contributing homegrown solutions that reflect our leadership in shaping the future of digital transformation in Africa.”

DPGA supports the adoption of open technologies that any government or private institution can freely integrate to digitize its systems. These include open-source software and open AI systems that adhere to global privacy practices.

DPGA CEO Liv Marte Nordhaug believes that by joining the alliance, Nigeria will strengthen its digital public infrastructure in education, health, and other critical sectors. It will also join the pioneers of sustainable digital transformation, demonstrating its regional and global leadership.

For Nigeria, a nation of over 220 million citizens, digitalization is critical to development, Tijani said in an event in New York a month ago. He called on African countries to join the country in implementing an open data exchange system across the continent, which would facilitate easier, faster, and cheaper intra-regional trade.

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