The African Union Convention on Cybersecurity and Personal Data Protection was adopted in 2014 in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. Ten years later, Madagascar joined the list of countries that have ratified it.
The Malagasy Ministry of Digital Development, Posts and Telecommunications announced last week that Madagascar has joined the Malabo Convention on Cybersecurity and Personal Data Protection. The aim is to have a safer cyberspace and to effectively combat cybercrime.
With this membership, Madagascar will be able “integrate the legal benchmarks concerning the implementation of personal data protection policies by the CMIL (Malagasy Commission for Information Technology and Civil Liberties) and the ANSSI (National Agency for Information Systems Security or CIRT in English).”
This accession comes in a context where cybersecurity has become an important component since the acceleration of digital transformation on the continent. African countries are forced to deal with this parameter and since the Covid-19 pandemic, many of them have accelerated the ratification of the African Union Convention on Cybersecurity and Personal Data Protection adopted in 2014 in Malabo.
The Convention aims, among other things, at the protection of personal data within the framework of cybersecurity legislation; cooperation to ensure the security of personal data and combat digital crime, by facilitating the exchange of information between national entities; the use of electronic technologies to secure personal data at the national level; and the fight against cybercrime by establishing specific entities in each country that is a signatory to the Convention.
According to the 2020 edition of the “Global Cybersecurity Index” report published by the International Telecommunications Union, Madagascar has a cybersecurity index of 23.33 and ranks 24e place on the African level, just ahead of Guinea (20.53) and behind Mozambique (24.18).
As a reminder, Angola, Benin, Togo, Senegal, Rwanda, Namibia, Niger, Mauritius, Mozambique, Ghana, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cape Verde, Guinea, Ivory Coast and Mauritania have already ratified the convention.
Adonis Conrad Quenus
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