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The republic of Ghana has hosted the first Africa Union (AU)-Global Forum on Cyber Expertise (GFCE) Africa Cyber Experts (ACE) Community meeting in Accra from March 16-18, 2022.

In a keynote speech read by the Deputy Minister for Communications and Digitalisation, Hon. Ama Pomaa Boateng, at the opening session of the event, the Minister for Communications and Digitalisation, Hon. Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful said Ghana is ready to support, collaborate and learn from other African states to secure the continent’s digital ecosystem.

According to the Minister, domestic cyber resilience is very much dependent on strong international collaboration arrangements, and Ghana’s membership of global institutions like the GFCE is very critical for capacity building efforts on the continent. The gathering, she said, was very timely to enhance the ongoing capacity building activities planned to improve domestic, regional, and global responses to cybercrimes.

Welcoming the participants to the conference on the opening day, the Ag. Director-General of the Cyber Security Authority, Dr. Albert Antwi-Boasiako thanked the GFCE for reaching out to Ghana to host the maiden edition of the ACE Community Meeting. He said, Ghana joined the GFCE in 2021 to promote and strengthen capacity building through international collaboration and ultimately to improve her national cyber response and resilience.

Hosting the event, therefore, meant a lot to Ghana, as it formed part of the national strategy to work with peers on the continent to collectively improve capacity and to mitigate cybercrimes and other cybersecurity challenges.

The Head of Economic Integration, AUDA-NEPAD, Dr. Towela Nyirenda-Jere, said the start of trading under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), issues of cybersecurity will become increasingly significant in supporting e-services, e-commerce and the free movement of people, goods and services. “It is therefore crucial for countries and organisations to have capabilities to govern data protection and the security of electronic transactions. This is where the AU-GFCE project comes in” she added.

The three-day conference was under the theme, ‘Setting the Scene for Cybersecurity Status in Africa’ and was facilitated by AUDA-NEPAD, GFCE, the Ministry for Communications and Digitalisation and Cyber Security Authority (CSA). The workshops and panel discussions were on varied areas of cybersecurity including Critical Information Infrastructure Protection, cybersecurity national strategies, cyber diplomacy & norms, AU-GFCE Knowledge Module, etc. A Knowledge Module session for student leaders drawn from some tertiary schools in Ghana was also organised on the third day.

Closing the session, the Chief Director of the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation, Mrs. Magdalene Apenteng called for continued collaboration to fight cybercrime. She said, “it is our collective responsibility as cyber experts to ensure the safe and secure digital ecosystem that is required for our countries and the younger generation”. She urged the participants to increase capacity building efforts in their respective countries adding that, “the message should be carried across to all sections of the society; make the people aware, get them trained, and make them stay alert to ward off attacks. That is the only way we can overcome.”

The Meeting was attended by cyber experts and officials from 31 countries. African countries that attended include Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Kenya, Senegal, Gambia, Liberia and Angola. Others are Togo, Benin. Mauritania, Egypt, Republic of Congo, Namibia and Burkina Faso. Some participants from Spain and Serbia attended from Europe.