Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, the Minister for Communications and Digitalization, says digital literacy is necessary in the drive towards advancing mobile interoperability in Africa.

She said the success of interoperability hinged on a clear understanding of the digital concepts and how they worked, coupled with the availability of digital infrastructure.

The Minister said this at the Africa Prosperity Network interoperability symposium, which was held in Accra.

The symposium was under the theme, “Scaling up interoperability: Using mobile money to buy and sell across Africa”.

The symposium was a step towards unlocking the full potential of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) and fostering economic growth in Africa.

Owusu-Ekuful advocated the harmonising of interoperable systems, which was important in promoting data sovereignty on the African continent.

“How data is being stored, who has access to it, who has control over it, and how it is used should be of keen concern to the various forerunners of this content and the continent-wide mobile interoperability drive,“ she said.

She said data protection laws were important in propelling the interoperability drive on the African continent and urged every nation to have those laws.

She, however, advocated a flexible law to create room for pools of data to be utilised regionally.

The Minister said her outfit, through the Smart Africa Alliance, would deploy a key building block for cross-border transfer of medical records across the continent.

“The first examples chosen for the initial implementation of the Smart Africa Alliance’s digital services interoperability platform include cross-border mobile SIM card registration. Ghana, Benin, Senegal, and Togo are currently part of the first pilot programme for smarter Africa. Other use cases include the sharing of medical records for access to health facilities, such as when we move from country to country, “ she said.

The Minister said efforts towards full interoperability on the African continent will require the expertise, insights and concerted efforts of all stakeholders notably regulators, FinTech companies, commercial banks, mobile network operators and Small, Medium and Enterprises (SME) associations.

Those stakeholders, she noted, could create a robust, interconnected financial ecosystem that benefited every African.