Dakar, March 8 (APS) – An international forum dedicated to the theme: ””digital identity and data governance”, opened on Tuesday in Dakar, at the initiative of the national data commission in personal character.
The meeting is organized in partnership with the African Network of Personal Data Protection Authorities (RAPDP) and the Smart Africa Alliance. This two-day meeting (March 8 and 9) brings together personalities from the digital ecosystem and personal data protection organizations from South Africa, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, from Ghana, Morocco, found the APS.
The African landscape of digital identity and the potential of the data economy” are among the themes on the program of this forum. Panelists are also invited to reflect on the implementation of a continental framework for data governance.
“This forum was born out of a need for reflection and harmonization of actions and programs, in the face of issues that challenge digital players and personal data regulators on a daily basis,” said Awa Ndiaye, President of the Personal Data Protection Commission of Senegal.
The forum should materialize the promise of institutional and scientific collaboration between the African Network of Personal Data Protection Authorities (RAPDP) and the Smart Africa Alliance, she suggested.
The president of the CDP is of the opinion that ”the attribution of a digital identity to each citizen has become a fundamental prerequisite for the implementation of the public policies of the States, and for electronic transactions”.
Awa Ndiaye especially insisted on the notion of ”ethics”, which remains ”the slider of legality of the purposes assigned to digital identity systems, sometimes intended for use outside national borders”.
“The disparity between legislations, and the need for interoperability of digital identities, must be overcome, in order to establish a transparent, secure and trustworthy system,” she continued.
Addressing the challenges for a “digitalization of data that is still manual”, the president of the African Network of Personal Data Protection Authorities (RAPDP), Patricia Poku, insisted on “the need for Africa to have a voice for better management and governance of personal data”, at times hosted outside the continent.
In a world where we talk more and more regarding digitization and augmented intelligence, the Minister of Digital Economy and Telecommunications, Yankhoba Diattara, pointed out that regulating personal data would amount to preserving the social and economic order.
