"The African countries are countries with fast-growing economies and populations, and cooperation with them will offer Estonia several interesting possibilities. For example, we can introduce information technology solutions to increase the efficiency of governance, increasing cybersecurity and implementing several e-services," Väino Reinart, deputy secretary-general of the Foreign Ministry for economic and development cooperation, said in a press release.

Technological demos will be set up during the project through which officials can participate in the project and receive hands-on experience regarding the functioning of an e-state.

The total cost of the project is approximately €230,000, of which 58% or €133,400 is contributed by the Foreign Ministry's development cooperation and humanitarian aid assets, 41% will come from the African Union, and 1% from the Estonian ICT cluster.

According to Reinart, a cooperation memorandum signed between Estonia and the African Union that highlights the union's expectations regarding Estonia's information and communication technology experience is what got the project going.

"The project will add a tangible output to the cooperation memorandum between the state of Estonia and the African Union as the first step towards creating an e-Governance Academy program in the African Union," Reinart said.

In cooperation with the African Union some ten countries will be mapped that are interested to develop e-governance capability. After that, officials and specialists responsible for ICT development in these countries will get the opportunity to use a demo version of Estonia's e-state services.

Download the ERR News app for Android and iOS now and never miss an update!