Three years After: From Coordination to Implementation.

NAIROBI, Kenya — Three years after its ambitious launch, the Coalition for Digital Africa has successfully transitioned from strategic coordination to large-scale implementation, fundamentally reshaping the continent’s internet infrastructure and digital autonomy.

According to a project update released by the organization, the Coalition’s initiatives now span more than 34 African countries, directly reaching over 62% of the continent’s population through a powerful network of 14 global, regional, and African partners.

Keeping African Data in Africa

At the heart of the Coalition’s milestone achievements is a massive upgrade to Africa’s Domain Name System (DNS) infrastructure. By deploying two operational root server clusters in Nairobi (November 2022) and Cairo (October 2023), internet traffic routing has drastically changed.

Previously, an estimated 35% to 40% of Africa’s queries to the L-Root server had to travel outside the continent to be resolved, causing latency and data flight. Today, approximately 77% of these queries are served locally within Africa. This regional resilience has been further strengthened by the activation of “L-Single-instances” hosted in Libya and South Africa.

Furthermore, the country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) of Cameroon, Burkina Faso, and Burundi are now fully DNSSEC-active—a security protocol that protects the internet directory from malicious redirection. Internet Exchange Point (IXP) projects in Benin, Malawi, Rwanda, and Madagascar have also ensured that local internet traffic remains within local networks.

Breaking Language Barriers Online

The Coalition has made significant strides in Universal Acceptance (UA)—the concept that all domain names and email addresses, regardless of language, script, or character length, must function equally across all applications.

Focusing heavily on the academic sector to train the next generation of tech leaders, the initiative has upgraded more than 300 African universities to operate UA-compliant email systems, up from 282. Even more stark is the leap in website readiness, jumping from 54 to over 130 university websites that are now fully UA-ready. Hands-on workshops in Ghana, Namibia, and Morocco have successfully pushed these standards into day-to-day IT operations.

Building Long-Term Digital Sovereignty

Recognizing that infrastructure is only as good as the people running it, the Coalition has prioritized heavy institutional capacity building.

Over the last three years, targeted training has been provided to African ccTLD registries on governance, data-driven operations, and business sustainability. A specialized Lusophone track, delivered entirely in Portuguese, was rolled out to support registries in Mozambique, Angola, São Tomé and Príncipe, Cabo Verde, and Guinea-Bissau.

The initiative has also bridged the gap between tech and policy. Workshops have trained over 40 parliamentarians, legal professionals, and government officials from more than 15 African countries. This political momentum culminated in late 2025, when Smart Africa—with ICANN support—presented a Draft Blueprint on Internet Governance during the ICANN84 meeting in Dublin.

Looking Ahead

What started as a roadmap has turned into a robust digital ecosystem. Moving forward, the Coalition plans to scale its infrastructure deployments wherever regional demand and technical readiness align.

“The emphasis throughout has been to ensure that institutions can operate and govern these systems independently,” the Coalition stated, highlighting that future phases will continue to focus on shifting Universal Acceptance from a specialized project into a routine institutional practice across the continent.

About Author

Dr. Adebunmi Adeola Akinbo

Dr. Adebunmi Akinbo is a Researcher, Media Psychologist, Brand and Content Expert. He is an Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Fellow, Member of Association of Cyber Forensics and Threat Investigators (ACFTI), Associate Member of the Computer Professional Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN), and a Senior Member of Chartered Institute of Public Diplomacy & Management (CIPDM), He is passionate for information and solutions for ICT Challenges by the media for the global village.

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