50-in-5: Why All Africa Need to Join the Newest Digitalization Movement in Town the Soonest

Digitalization has turned the world from a global village into a global dormitory of some sort.

That Mark Zuckerberg’s eureka moment in his Harvard dormitory cum improvised digital lab on February 4, 2004 and the consequent profound awakening it gave digital industry players has spawned a rapid evolution of the digisphere is a fact that cannot ignored.

A sad fact of digitalization in developing economies is that bottlenecks like poor public infrastructure, lack of funds, bureaucracy, graft, inefficiency, mismanagement, political and economic instability, as well as low investor confidence have hampered poorer countries’ quest for digital innovation.

Central and indispensable to countries’ digitalization agenda is Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI). DPI, which refers to a “secure and interoperable network of computers that include digital payments, ID, and data exchange systems” is essential for participation in markets and society in a digital era and is critical for the attainment and acceleration of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

A new consortium of emerging economies has initiated a new advocacy campaign to, among other objectives, “commit to sharing learnings, best practices and technologies that can ultimately reduce costs, build local capacity, maximize impact, and help radically shorten the implementation journeys for public infrastructure” in these countries’ drive towards achieving parity with the rest of the developed world in their digitalization drive.

Led by 11 diverse “First-Mover” countries, – Bangladesh, Estonia, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Moldova, Norway, Senegal, Sierra Leonne, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Togo – 50-in-5, which formed November 8, 2023, aims to aid 50 countries to rapidly expand, enhance and accelerate the rollout of their DPI by 2028, hence its name.

The other countries that make up this 15-member organization are Dominican Republic, Lesotho, Malawi and Zambia.

“In this digital journey we stand ready to share digital learnings and other best practices with other 50-in-5 countries, and we are eager to learn from others. We will also make some of our proven technologies available as open source”, Karianne Tung, Minister of Digitalization and Public Governance, Norway said at its launch.

It emphasizes how far these ambitious economies are willing to go to tap the unlimited wealth of doles that digitalization bodes and are very much resolved to radically improve their digital infrastructure and boost innovation.

Instead of waiting on the UN to come up with a specialized agency to do this for developing economies, these countries have taken the initiative to do it themselves.

The campaign formed in collaboration with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and United Nations Development Program (UNDP) as well as United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the American Development Bank.

There is an urgent need for emerging economies to make DPI a priority as it prevents countries from being “locked into digital monopolies that are costly, stifle innovation, hinder future ability to adapt to unforeseen needs, and limit public benefit. Without coordinated country cooperation on DPI, countries risk duplicating efforts which can exacerbate disparities and lead to fragmented, duplicative, and inefficient digital ecosystems.”

Africa, especially Ghana, need to join this campaign as a matter of urgency as it aligns with the continent’s digitalization goals. African countries need partners in their digitalization drive; the quest for development has long been a long and lonely road.

This is a golden opportunity for Africa to join an advocacy campaign that has the potential to snowball into something into an organization in its own right in their quest to achieving a more advanced digisphere.

Eric Boakye Antwi is a social cum tech entrepreneur and journalist. He has written for Goal.com, World in
Sport, and Bleacher Report. Reach him on Facebook @Eric Boakye Antwi and Instagram @ Eric Boakye
Antwi. Then on Twitter at Eric Boakye Antw2.