- Country: Benin
- Population: 14 million
- Project timeline: initial project 01.2019-07.2021, expansion, enhancement, and support and maintenance ongoing
- Customer: Agence des Services et Systèmes d’Information (ASSI), though after merging 4 executing agencies in 2022 the organisation was renamed as Agence des Systèmes d'Information et du Numérique (ASIN)
- Partner: e-Governance Academy (eGA) as prime contractor
- Subcontractor: OpenSI
- Funding: Government of Benin
Project Background
In 2016 the Beninese president visited Estonia and chose Estonia as one of the benchmark example countries to help develop the Beninese e-state. A couple of years later the e-Governance Academy, with Cybernetica as its technology partner, signed an agreement with Benin’s National Information Systems and Services Agency (ASSI). This agreement allowed for work to begin on a project to modernise the delivery of public services in Benin.
The goal of the project was to deploy a full-scale governmental interoperability solution in Benin which would lay the foundation for government registries to exchange data with one another. A citizen portal would then be built on this foundation, with online service provision being recognised as an important pillar of the envisioned Beninese e-state.
Cybernetica’s contribution
During the course of the project Cybernetica, as the technology partner for the e-Governance Academy, developed and delivered the secure data exchange framework to connect Beninese registries based on its UXP technology. This framework serves as the enabling foundation for public digital services and allows government information systems to securely and seamlessly communicate with each other.
Once the foundation was laid, Cybernetica then developed and implemented a citizen portal (Portail National des services publics du Bénin) to enable the provision of e-services to Beninese citizens and public servants. These services are offered through an integrated e-services website and a one-stop e-government management catalogue in a unified way, helping to automate processes across different governmental and non-governmental entities.
Cybernetica also supported the development of the organisational setup, regulatory framework and guidelines, procedures and key standards related to the e-Government interoperability system to be used by different offices, ministries, agencies and other governmental institutions. Cybernetica organised several technical trainings during the project to support knowledge transfer to the Beninese public sector to support management and maintenance of the platform and portal. The data exchange platform and citizen portal were fully up and running in just one year, ready to support ever new online services.
Since the initial project ended, Cybernetica has continued its ongoing work with Benin. This includes supporting Benin with maintaining the gateway to public digital services, the citizen portal and the underlying technology enabling all of this, the UXP-based secure data exchange platform. Since implementation, the platform has continued to grow and a vast number of organisations have joined and continue to join to offer new services in a more citizen-centric, efficient and seamless manner.
What’s been the impact?
- Benin witnessed an impressive speed of adopting digitalisation and has improved its performance on the United Nations Online Service Index benchmark indicator in 2024. It’s now ranked 13th in Africa, well above the regional average.
- According to another indicator, World Bank’s Gov Tech Maturity Index, Benin moved from the 'C' class to the ‘B’ class in just one year in 2022. This index measures the use and performance of existing government platforms.
- As of 2024, more than 50 government institutions currently exchange data digitally to provide over 270 digital services through their citizen portal. This number is expected to continue to grow. With more than 3 million monthly information exchanges done automatically online, both the amount of paper documents as well as time used for processing of files have reduced considerably. More information on statistics can be found here.
- Implementation of the data exchange framework has enabled secure, standardised, and confidential sharing and reuse of information within the public administration, contributing to rise in its efficiency. It has also laid the foundation for the rapid development of new digital services and simplified interactions with the government such as receiving permits, registering people and companies. The distributed approach ensures service availability 24/7.
Want to know more?
For more information about this project, see the following links or get in touch!
- Podcast and Blog from the e-Governance Academy: Benin has taken off on its digital journey
- Case Study from the OECD: Benin and Estonia's e-government partnership
- An interview with Aristide Adjinacou, the former Director of the Information Systems and Digitisation Division at ASIN on how Benin is building its digital government
- Cybernetica's media release on the Benin service portal