Mozambique has appointed Adilson dos Santos Cousin Gomes as chairman of the board of its newly established Digital Transformation and Innovation Agency, known by its Portuguese acronym ATDI, as the government accelerates a sweeping digital modernization agenda.
The appointment was announced this week, days after the agency was created by government decree earlier this month. ATDI will coordinate digital transformation activities across the public sector, harmonize and ensure interoperability of state digital platforms, manage and integrate data centers, streamline procurement of technological solutions and develop digital systems for citizen services.
The Ministry of Communications and Digital Transformation said the appointment “comes at a time when Mozambique intensifies its efforts to accelerate digital transformation, strengthen cybersecurity and promote interoperability of state systems, factors considered decisive for the efficiency of public services and economic development.”
The government also established two additional governance structures by decree on March 10: a National Commission for Artificial Intelligence and a multisectoral technical commission for coordinating and implementing digital transformation. In February, authorities launched the process to design a National Digital Transformation Strategy, a roadmap intended to leverage public digital infrastructure to support inclusive development and strengthen economic resilience.
Mozambique has also set ambitious connectivity targets, aiming to reach 80% mobile penetration, cover 95% of national territory and achieve 99% network availability. Target connection speeds range from 100 megabits per second to 1 gigabit per second for 5G and from 10 to 100 megabits per second for 4G. The government plans to meet these targets through satellite technology, telecom network expansion and fiber optic infrastructure extension.
The scale of the challenge is significant. The United Nations ranked Mozambique 177th out of 193 economies in the 2024 E-Government Development Index, with a score of 0.2848 out of 1, below sub-regional, African and global averages. The International Telecommunication Union placed the country in the third tier of its 2024 Global Cybersecurity Index, highlighting gaps in legal, technical and capacity-building areas, and estimated internet penetration at 20.5%.
