Liberia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Dean of the Cabinet, Sara Beysolow Nyanti, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Cybastion Institute of Technology to enhance digital infrastructure in the country.
The MoU will see the establishment of a new data center and a subsea cable to improve the nation’s connectivity.
No details regarding the cable or the data center have been shared.
Signed at the Westin New York in Times Square last week (September 24), the MoU includes the launch of a five-year agreement, named the Digital Fast Track program.
The Digital Fast Track program has been designed to accelerate Liberia’s digital transformation by implementing digital government services, expanding digital infrastructure, improving data management, and addressing technology gaps.
Minister Nyanti said: "Today’s signing sets the stage for deeper technical discussions with relevant government agencies on the delivery of digital services as part of the ‘Digital Fast Track’ program.
“The Government of Liberia, under the leadership of His Excellency President Joseph Nyuma Boakai, views digital infrastructure as a cornerstone for accelerating our national development goals, encapsulated in the ARREST (agriculture, roads, rule of law, education, sanitation, and tourism) agenda.”
The Cybastion Institute of Technology has worked across the African continent to improve cybersecurity and digital capabilities. Its projects have included partnerships with US and African universities to develop cybersecurity and digital infrastructure certificates and diploma programs.
Its founder, Dr. Thierry Wandji, has worked with the US government to lead digital transformation initiatives in the Ivory Coast, Niger, Burkina Faso, Benin, the Central African Republic, and Namibia.
Liberia is not home to any data centers, according to Datacenter.com. The ACE cable is the only cable to land in the country but has experienced outages in recent months.
Attempts to improve connectivity and push socio-economic development in the nation have taken place in recent months. Nokia signed a rural connectivity deal with iSat Africa earlier this month and Chinese vendor ZTE partnered with Orange Liberia to deploy more than 100 communication sites in rural areas of the country.
