Cybersecurity : Côte d’Ivoire activates its national PKI🔐🇨🇮

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On July 23, 2026, in Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s Minister of Digital Transition and Technological Innovation, Djibril Ouattara, announced the commissioning of the country’s national Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), during a workshop reviewing the 2021–2025 national cybersecurity strategy and unveiling the 2026–2030 roadmap. Led by Ivory Coast’s National Agency for Information Systems Security (ANSSI-CI), this infrastructure now sits at the top of the country’s chain of trust for internationally recognized electronic certificates.

Building digital trust 🛡️

With this launch, ANSSI-CI strengthens the national framework for digital trust. The national PKI now serves as the trust foundation for every certification authority operating in Ivory Coast.

The infrastructure fits within the legal and regulatory framework that grants electronic signatures legal value, meeting security and reliability requirements for digital exchanges. Thanks to this system, government bodies, businesses, and citizens can carry out electronic transactions in a more secure environment.

Securing digital services and transactions 💻

In practice, the national PKI guarantees the authenticity of electronic exchanges, preserves data integrity, and ensures non-repudiation of transactions — meaning a signatory can’t later deny having carried out an operation.

The infrastructure is also expected to secure digitized financial and administrative transactions, while strengthening the protection of critical infrastructure through sovereign electronic certificates. Its rollout is intended to support the local electronic certification market and accelerate the country’s broader digital transformation.

What a PKI actually is 🔑

A Public Key Infrastructure, or PKI, is a set of technologies, rules, and services designed to secure electronic exchanges and verify the identity of users, organizations, or connected devices.

In practice, it issues electronic certificates that function as digital ID cards, confirming that a person, company, website, or government body is indeed who they claim to be. This infrastructure makes it possible to legally sign documents electronically, encrypt sensitive data, authenticate users during login, and secure online transactions.

PKI is reportedly one of the pillars of digital trust worldwide, underpinning everything from online public services and banking to e-commerce, corporate networks, and critical infrastructure. By running its own national PKI, a country also strengthens its digital sovereignty — keeping control over how electronic certificates are issued and managed on its own territory.

The result of a longer process 🚀

This milestone builds on work ANSSI-CI has been carrying out for several years. The agency had already secured recognition from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) as the national registration authority for Object Identifiers (OID) — a technical and institutional foundation that made this PKI rollout possible.

The launch also fits into the Ivorian Ministry of Digital Transition and Digitalization’s 2026–2028 roadmap, one milestone among several in a broader cybersecurity strategy.

Have you ever used an electronic signature or digital certificate for an administrative process? Tell us in the comments.