The World Bank is partnering with Smart Africa to scale up the Smart Africa Digital Academy (SADA) initiative from a national to a regional focus as part of the Western Africa Regional Digital Integration Programme (WARDIP), in a bid to advance regional integration of digital markets through a US$20 million grant for five years.
This scale-up will leverage on the existing SADA implementation and AReg4DT programme to establish a new generation of policymakers and regulators across Africa, who are individually knowledgeable on how to harness the potential of green and inclusive Digital Transformation through new approaches to policy and regulation, and who collectively contribute to the establishment of a Single Digital Market in Africa.
With this aim, the scale-up will reach 30,000 unique policymakers and decision-makers from all countries in Africa, with a targeted participation level of females at 40%.
Given the World Bank’s commitment to Digital Transformation in Africa, the grant will significantly contribute to regional integration and rapid adoption of the Single Digital Market for Africa.
Launched by the Smart Africa Alliance from a seed money of about US$30,000 which saw the first implementation of an online training for policy and decision-makers in August 2020, the SADA has made significant strides in advancing digital skills and fostering a dynamic learning ecosystem across Africa with initial grant support from Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), the German Federal Ministry for Corporation and Development and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH (BMZ /GIZ).
SADA aims to bridge the digital skills gap in African countries, improving employability and meeting the emerging talent needs of African citizens. Since its inception, SADA has trained over 7,000 beneficiaries across 35 countries in Africa on various Digital Transformation topics.
CEO of Smart Africa, Lacina Koné, said: “At the heart of the Digital Transformation lies the need to bridge the digital skills gap of our continent’s future and present workforce. Today, I am pleased to announce that SADA, our capacity building vehicle, is geared to reach a new milestone thanks to our key development partner, The World Bank.”
