Africa’s Digital Future, ECOWAS, etc. vs AfCFTA and Technological Sovereignty, Let’s Move From Admiration to Pragmatic, Actionable Recommendations

My recent meeting with H.E. Dr. Josephine Nkrumah, Esq., the Ambassador of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to Liberia, reminded me of the magnitude of Africa’s digital opportunity and the leadership required to seize it. Under the capable guidance of H.E. Dr. Omar Alieu Touray, ECOWAS continues to advance regional priorities. Likewise, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), led by H.E. Wamkele Mene, has delivered extraordinary progress in building Africa’s most ambitious integration framework.

However, ECOWAS, AfCFTA, the Sahel region, North Africa, Morocco’s economic corridor, and East African hubs such as Tanzania cannot pursue digital advancement in isolation. Our technological efforts must be coordinated, interoperable, and grounded in a shared vision of continental integration. Every digital system designed today must anticipate Africa’s future needs and be built with scalability, interoperability, and long-term transformation in mind.

Africa must move beyond admiring technology to making pragmatic, actionable decisions. This includes developing Africa-owned digital infrastructure, expanding the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), the AfCFTA-backed financial platform designed to facilitate real-time cross-border payments within Africa, into a fully interoperable continental system, eliminating stovepipe digital structures that undermine integration, mobilizing African billionaires and private-sector leaders to fund digital connectivity, and establishing a continental digital authority and a pan-African innovation laboratory capable of guiding the design of the systems required for the future.

In recognizing Africa’s progress, it is important to highlight PAPSS again, because it represents a bold step toward intra-African financial integration. Yet its future success requires interoperability with every regional bloc and the ability to scale into broader areas of trade and digital governance. The African Union must expand its vision for PAPSS and engage Africa’s leading experts to strengthen its architecture for continent-wide use.

At this critical moment, leadership must rise to the occasion. I strongly encourage leadership across the African Continental Free Trade Area to advance and push this continent-wide digital agenda. The Presidents of Ghana, South Africa, Nigeria, Morocco, Kenya, Tanzania, and the Sahel nations, along with key AfCFTA leaders, should be at the forefront of convening a formal continental meeting of experts. At the same time, smaller African nations must be encouraged to step forward confidently. If they raise their voices and present bold ideas, the continent will listen. Vision does not belong only to the large economies, leadership can emerge from any corner of Africa, and it must be welcomed.

This is the moment to test leadership, to see who genuinely believes in Africa’s integration vision and who is prepared to walk the path rather than merely speak about it. Diplomatically, we must say it plainly, the continent is watching. Africa is observing who will rise to this challenge, who will drive this transformation, and who will commit their leadership to a future that outlives their own tenure.

Africa also must recognize that building interoperable digital systems is financially prohibitive for individuals or isolated institutions. This level of transformation requires coordinated continental investment and unified political focus. It also calls for Africa’s most capable business leaders and billionaires to contribute meaningfully to this effort.

At the core of this vision lies a shift from technological dependency to technological sovereignty. Africa cannot continue outsourcing its digital identity, data governance, payments infrastructure, or cybersecurity architecture. Our systems must be built by Africans, for Africans, and with Africa’s long-term strategic interests at heart.

Two pathways are urgently needed, the creation of a continental digital authority, and the establishment of a pan-African innovation laboratory where ECOWAS, AfCFTA, the Sahel, North Africa, East Africa, and private-sector leaders co-design the next generation of interoperable digital systems.

In the coming days, I will launch a LinkedIn working group bringing technocrats, policymakers, legal experts, innovators, and the global African diaspora together to shape actionable pathways for digital integration.

Africa’s digital destiny will be shaped by those who build it. The work begins now.

– Dr. Michael Buadoo:
International Commercial Law, Digital Transformation, AfCFTA Implementation