Cotonou hosted from 17 to 18 November 2025, a regional summit bringing together ministers and representatives from 22 African countries from the West and the Center, alongside the World Bank and BOAD.

The work of the regional summit focused on digital transformation and its regional challenges, with a contrasting diagnosis : 4G coverage reaching 76%, 5G still marginal at 5%, and networks that remain expensive and unequally accessible. The participants have presented national advances in digitalization and insisted on the need for regional coordination to reduce differences technological and promote digital inclusion, especially in areas rural.

The debates highlighted the importance of sharing of expertise, the sharing of infrastructures and the harmonization of regulatory frameworks, in order to make technological innovation beneficial for the entire region and to achieve the goals of the African Union at the horizon 2030.

A light has been put on the challenges related to the training of digital skills and the adaptation of education systems. Several countries recalled that access to technology does not not enough: it must be accompanied by training programs for young people and women, in order to transform digital potential into a real lever inclusive growth. The World Bank emphasized the importance to invest in human capital to avoid the digital divide coupled with a social divide.