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India’s Digital Diplomacy
Time for a new India-Africa digital compact
Context: Africa Day, celebrated annually on May 25, commemorates the founding of the Organisation of African Unity in 1963 and symbolises the continent’s collective journey toward unity, independence, and inclusive development.
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- In recent years, this vision has increasingly embraced digital transformation as a strategic priority.
- The African Union’s Digital Transformation Strategy lays the foundation for leveraging technology to drive socio-economic growth.
- Amid this digital shift, India’s development diplomacy in Africa is also undergoing a significant transformation—evolving from traditional infrastructure and training support into a technology-driven, people-centric partnership model.
India’s Evolving Development Model in Africa
- Long History: India has a long-standing history of development cooperation in Africa, characterised by concessional credit lines, capacity-building programs, and social-impact projects.
- Digital Shift: However, recent years have seen a pivot toward digital public infrastructure (DPI) and innovation-driven collaboration, aligning closely with Africa’s digital ambitions.
- India’s Experience: This new approach draws on India’s experience with scalable, low-cost digital platforms such as Aadhaar (digital identity), UPI (instant payments), DIKSHA (digital learning), and CoWIN (health management).
- These homegrown platforms form the backbone of India’s Digital Public Infrastructure model, offering open-source, interoperable, and inclusive solutions to governance and service delivery challenges.
Africa-India Digital Partnerships: Key Milestones
India’s digital collaboration with African nations is gaining traction through several landmark initiatives:
- Togo (2021): Signed an MoU with IIIT-Bangalore to implement the Modular Open-Source Identification Platform as a foundation for the country’s digital ID system.
- Zambia (2023): Partnered with the Centre for Digital Public Infrastructure (IIIT-B) under the Smart Zambia Initiative to digitise public services at scale.
- Namibia (2024): The Bank of Namibia collaborated with NPCI International to develop a UPI-style real-time payments platform.
- Ghana: Is integrating its payment infrastructure with India’s UPI network to facilitate faster and more secure cross-border transactions.
- These developments showcase the growing relevance of India’s DPI ecosystem in Africa, driven by its affordability, scalability, and focus on digital public goods over proprietary technologies.
Africa’s Digital Choices: Strategic, Not Ideological
- Digital partnerships in Africa are shaped less by ideology and more by pragmatism.
- According to scholar Folashadé Soulé, African governments choose digital allies based on their ability to deliver outcomes that align with national development priorities.
- While China remains a major player due to its state-subsidised financing and infrastructure investments, India’s unique value proposition lies in its open, adaptable, and citizen-first digital framework.
- India’s DPI model offers an ethical alternative to surveillance-heavy or closed systems promoted by some other global actors.
- With a focus on co-development, knowledge transfer, and long-term institution-building, India presents a compelling digital cooperation model that is both technically robust and socially responsive.
Strategic Digital Footprint: IIT-M Zanzibar
- A milestone in India-Africa educational cooperation is the launch of the first overseas campus of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) in Zanzibar, Tanzania.
- Offering courses in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, this campus integrates academic excellence with private sector collaboration, including scholarships for African students.
- It aligns India’s digital diplomacy with Africa’s demand for technical skill development—a crucial enabler for long-term digital transformation.
Bridging the Digital Divide
- Despite the momentum, Africa still faces significant barriers to digital inclusion:
- High internet and device costs limit access.
- Rural-urban connectivity disparities hinder universal adoption.
- A persistent gender gap in digital literacy and usage remains a concern.
- Energy access is a bottleneck, as digital infrastructure expansion depends on reliable and sustainable electricity.
- However, progress is underway. Over 85% of African countries now have digital ID systems, with 70% collecting biometric data. This forms a solid base to build interoperable, inclusive DPI platforms tailored to local contexts.
As Africa advances its continental digital agenda, India has the opportunity to become a trusted partner—not just through technology exports, but through joint innovation, capacity building, and policy collaboration. A formal India-Africa digital compact, built on mutual respect and shared development goals, can be a scalable and ethical model for digital governance in the Global South.
