• Togo to deploy AI agents in schools as part of digital transformation
  

• Reforms aim to digitize ministries, expand broadband, and align with Cotonou Declaration
  

Togo’s Minister of Public Service Efficiency and Digital Transformation, Cina Lawson, outlined the country’s artificial intelligence (AI) priorities this week at the Regional Summit on Digital Transformation held in Cotonou on November 17-18.

She highlighted four main focus areas: education, data infrastructure, regulation, and digital transformation in public administration.

Lawson announced that Togo plans to introduce an AI agent in its education system. “We plan to deploy an AI agent in schools. This is a key step to prepare our education system for the AI era,” she said.

AI agents are software tools that can perform tasks autonomously, analyzing data, making simple decisions, and interacting with users. Their use has grown rapidly with the rise of generative AI, helping automate tasks, support users, and personalize services.

The project builds on ongoing connectivity efforts, including the rollout of fiber-optic networks in eleven municipalities. Connecting schools and health centers to high-speed broadband is seen as essential for offering new digital services.

Computing infrastructure was another major topic. Lawson stressed that no country in the region can shoulder the cost of an AI-dedicated data center alone. “No country will finance a data center for AI on its own. We need a regional approach to build a shared cluster,” she said.

Togo is banking on collective efforts already underway, supported by the Tier III+ data center that recently became fully operational with World Bank financing.

Togo’s push for AI is tied to a broader digital reform of public administration. “Togo has committed to digitally transforming all its ministries over the next eighteen months. This will generate large volumes of data that need clear governance and proper use,” Lawson said. She emphasized the urgency of a framework regulating how data is used, accessed, and made available.

The minister also raised the issue of regional regulation. “West Africa does not yet have a shared standard for data exchange. We must develop a clear framework that supports innovation and safeguards digital sovereignty,” she said.

For Lawson, regional alignment on data sharing and AI governance is essential to building an integrated digital market.

These priorities echo the commitments set out in the Cotonou Declaration, adopted at the end of the summit co-organized with the World Bank. The declaration calls on West and Central African countries to harmonize data-governance rules, build regional AI capacity, and accelerate the rollout of key digital services, particularly in education and public administration.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi