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Asseco Showcasing Its Public-Private Partnership with the Togolese Republic at the Lomé Cybersecurity Summit

On 23-24 March 2022, the Togolese Republic and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) organized a Cybersecurity Summit in Lomé that brought together ministers, private sector, and civil society leaders to engage in high-level dialogue with a view to finding cooperation and coordination solutions to respond to urgent cyber security challenges and issues.

The Summit provided the opportunity to put forth policy recommendations to be reviewed by African heads of state and government to create a cyber security system that meets the needs of the continent’s digital transformation and complies with the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the African Union’s Agenda 2063 as well as present the Togolese public-private partnership model with Asseco Group on cybersecurity and the synergy between the Security Operations Centre and the Computer Emergency Response Team. Finally, the Summit proposed concrete solutions for operational collaboration on cybersecurity and lead to the adoption of the Declaration of Lomé which calls to:

  1. sign and ratify the African Union Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection – known as the « Malabo Convention » – adopted on 27 June 2014;
  2. establish and ensure the effective implementation of a legal and regulatory framework relative to cybersecurity and the fight against cybercrime;
  3. develop cybersecurity strategies and policies that are stable, forward-looking, and tailored to the context and evolution of the African digital economy; and
  4. establish a framework to efficiently fight against cybercrime and promote a common cybersecurity culture.

Asseco was well represented, notably by Andrzej Dopierala, CEO of Asseco Data Systems and Vice President of Asseco Poland, Pawel Hansdorfer, Senior Director Inernational Business at Asseco Data Systems, Dariusz Brzeski, co-founder of the Asseco Group and member of the Supervisory Board of Asseco Poland as well as cybersecurity specialists from both Asseco Poland and Asseco Nigeria.

Simon Melchior, CEO Asseco Software Nigeria & DG of Cyber Defense Africa (CDA) among the panelists speaking on the topic titled Public-Private Partnership: An Innovative Solution said,

‘’The cyber defense Africa project is pioneering in several ways.

Firstly, of record it is the first time an African country is doing a PPP on cybersecurity, to protect its essential service operators and critical infrastructure from cyber threats. This PPP has been partly funded by the Togolese Republic, partly by Asseco and most of the financing came from Ecobank Togo without any sovereign guaranty from Togo.

Secondly, CDA operates a Security Operation Centre and manages the national CERT which makes us benefit from synergies and economics of scale, thereby reducing the cost of our services. Our objective is to provide cutting edge, affordable and sustainable cybersecurity services. The CDA project has been successfully delivered on time despite a very difficult global context related to the COVID-19 pandemic. But we are only at the beginning of our history and the future will tell if our innovative model was correct.

 

The Cybersecurity Summit was co-sponsored by Asseco and CDA, was attended by over 1,000 participants physically and remotely, including over 20 African Ministerial delegations.


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