Nigeria and Cabo Verde have taken a bold step toward continental innovation cooperation with the launch of the first Digital Africa Corridor (DAC), an initiative designed to deepen digital, business, and youth empowerment ties across Africa.
The pilot corridor, officially inaugurated in Abuja on 1 September 2025, is the product of SheCode.ai, in partnership with Kryterion Limited, and endorsed by the Ministry of Digital Economy of Cabo Verde.
It brought together 35 leaders spanning government, business, investment, and technology to examine opportunities in AI, the digital economy, and bilateral cooperation.
At the center of the launch was the endorsement of Code the Future – Cabo Verde Rising, a SheCode.ai flagship initiative. The program will equip more than 500 secondary school girls across three Cabo Verdean islands with coding, AI, and digital innovation skills.
To ensure sustainability, the program integrates Portuguese-language STEM toolkits, training for educators, and a national showcase of youth-led projects.
For Cabo Verde, the move signals a strong intent to leverage digital partnerships for national growth. Pedro Nuno Alves Fernandes Lopes, Secretary of State for Digital Economy, emphasized that the DAC goes beyond symbolic ties.
“This endorsement is not just about Cabo Verde. It is about showing that African nations can lead their own digital future. We are proud to launch the first Digital Africa Corridor with Nigeria, and we look forward to welcoming Nigerian businesses to Praia to build real partnerships.”
The Abuja roundtable also laid the foundation for a Nigeria–Cabo Verde Business & Innovation Mission scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2025 in Praia. The mission will convene 20–25 Nigerian companies and ecosystem leaders to explore collaboration in renewable energy, the creative economy, tourism, climate action, education, and job creation.
For SheCode.ai, the corridor represents more than diplomacy.
Christiana Onoja, Co-founder and CEO, SheCode.ai, explained: “SheCode.ai created the Digital Africa Corridor to ensure diplomacy leads to action. With Cabo Verde, we now have proof: a government-endorsed program and a mandate to expand into business cooperation. Code the Future will give 500 girls in Cabo Verde the skills to thrive, and the Corridor model will scale across Africa.”
Kryterion Limited, the Nigerian co-convener, sees the project as part of a wider continental agenda. Col. Felix Alaita (rtd), CEO of Kryterion, added: “Nigeria has a unique role to play as a facilitator of innovation diplomacy in Africa. This pilot corridor shows that when governments, innovators, and the private sector collaborate, the result is not talk, but programs and partnerships.”
With Nigeria anchoring the facilitation role and Cabo Verde offering an innovation testbed, the Digital Africa Corridor could become a replicable model for African nations seeking to transform diplomacy into tangible development outcomes.