Cyber Security Experts gather in Accra

The Africa Cyber Experts (ACE) Community has gathered in Ghana’s capital – specifically Alisa Hotel, located at North Ridge in Accra for a three-day meeting on Cybersecurity related matters aimed at enhancing and improving security capacity building in the Africa continent.

The program which is benefitting about  31 countries with 65 participants also aims at finding sustainable ways to lead efforts towards a digital Africa among other needed topics.

The countries are Mauritania, Benin,  Spain, Serbia, Kenya, Nigeria, AU, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Republic of Congo, Namibia, Burkina Faso, South Africa, among others.

It is being hosted by the Cyber Security Authority under the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation, in collaboration with African Union (AU), Global Forum on Cyber Expertise (GFCE) and Africa Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD).

Education

Acting Director-General of the Cyber Security Authority (CSA), Dr. Albert Antwi Boasiako in his welcome address said fighting cybercrime would require a multi-stakeholder approach, with the collaboration of all relevant parties.

“The Republic of Ghana joined the GFCE last year to promote and strengthen capacity building through international collaboration and ultimately to improve our national cyber response and resilience. Hosting this event, therefore, means a lot to us, as it forms part of our national strategy to work with our peers on the continent to improve our collective capacity to mitigate cybercrimes and other cybersecurity challenges.

“As a national institution responsible for cybersecurity matters, I wish to express CSA’s support and commitment to developing this community of Africa Cyber Experts to be able to support our respective governments to address the current state of cyber insecurity being experienced on the continent.”

He added, “I am of the opinion that, the ACE Community meeting will meet its expectations by identifying the capacity building needs of the continent. I believe experts gathered here will also come out with innovative ways of deploying capacity building initiatives, taking into consideration our specific developmental needs and the cyber context of our respective countries. I also wish to recommend the inclusion of African private sector cybersecurity actors in our gatherings to promote public-private sector development of continental capacity building programmes. Capacity building on the continent should be homegrown, developed, and owned by Africans and I believe this group has been established to lead us to achieve these goals.”

Assessment

The head of Economic Integration AUDA-NEPAD, Towela Nyirenda-Jere on her part revealed her outfit has “undertaken assessments in 10 countries using a cybersecurity assessment framework with the support of partners and member states” adding that the “assessment report detailing key and providing recommendations” will take the process to a better stage in cyber-capacity and cybersecurity matters in the continent.