13 November 2024

Oumouri Mmadi Hassane, Comorian Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, recently hosted Helaina Stein, head of the Comoros at the United States Embassy in Madagascar, to consider collaboration between the two countries in the sectors of information and communication technologies and the digital economy.

Oumouri Mmadi Hassane highlighted the importance of training and retaining Comorian technological talents in various ICT fields including programming, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence.

This initiative comes a few weeks after the African Development Bank (AfDB) granted $10.5 million for the implementation of the Comorian Economy Digitalization Support Project. It is part of the ‘Comoros Emergent 2030’ plan and the ‘Comoros Numérique 2028’ strategy, which aim to harness the potential of ICTs for the country’s economic development. According to data from the International Telecommunications Union, the Comoros had a score of 46.5 out of 100 on the ICT Development Index in July 2024. This score is below the average score for Africa, which was 50.3.

The moves come a few weeks after Telma Madagascar became the first operator to launch a 5G commercial network in the island country.

“5G will transform how we use and adopt technology and will have a huge impact on businesses and society in Madagascar,” said Telma Madagascar CEO, Patrick Pisal-Hamida.