The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) yesterday launched a US$2.5 billion Inclusive Digitalisation for East and Southern Africa (IDEA) programme, with funding from the World Bank.

The eight-year initiative aims to extend internet access to 180 million people and deliver digitally enabled services to 100 million individuals across the region.

It targets a broad spectrum of beneficiaries, including women, refugees, host communities, private sector firms and public sector institutions.

In a statement, COMESA said the IDEA programme seeks to bridge the digital divide and foster economic development by promoting universal digital access, productive digital use and regional market integration.

"The first phase of the programme includes a US$ $10 million grant for the COMESA secretariat and US$780 million for operations in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Malawi.

"The IDEA programme is expected to bring together over 15 countries, RECs, and development partners under one programme to achieve the common goal of achieving digital access and leverage it for productive use over the eight years," said COMESA.

Currently, in Eastern and Southern Africa, only 64 percent of the population is covered by high-speed internet and less than half (only 24 percent) were using the internet as of 2023.