As World Bank Pumps $50m
President Bio's Government Breathes Life Into Digital Transformation
By: Zacharia Jalloh Strategic Communications Unit, MIC.
After several solid engagements with the World Bank by the Minister of Information and Communications Mr. Mohamed Rahman Swaray to support the Government's Digital Transformation of Sierra Leone, the World Bank has internally approved $50 million to the project.
The project will support digital skills, enhance e-governance and promote cyber security in the country. The President Dr. Julius Maada Bio has always emphasised on Sierra Leone catching up with the fourth industrial revolution.
The President in his address at the State Opening of the fifth session of the fifth Parliament of the Republic of Sierra Leone highlighted the gains the country has made in enacting the Cyber Security and Crime Act, Digital Transformation project and the Data Protection Bill that will soon be tabled in Parliament for approval.
"The recently enacted Cyber Security and Crime Act addresses
cyber crimes, protects critical national information infrastructure, and
provides for the timely and effective collection of electronic evidence
for the purpose of investigation and prosecution of cyber crime. The
National Cyber Security Coordinating Centre has been established and
the Ministry will soon start implementing the $50m USD World Bank
funded Digital Transformation Project. Additional measures and legislation on national digital development, data protection and privacy, and electronic communications will soon be laid in this House," the President said.
The Digital Transformation Project does not come across as a magic, but was well mapped out in the New Direction manifesto and it seeks to leverage the use of Digitalization in governance. Under the section that deals with *ICT* in the manifesto it reads "The New Direction seeks to:
"Establish an Electronic Governance system to manage government business electronically."
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