The African Telecommunications Union (ATU) was established in 1977 as the AU Telecommunications specialized Agency. This led to the transformation of the agency into a partnership between public and private stakeholders in the ICT sector.
The mission of the ATU is to promote the rapid development of info-communications in Africa in order to achieve universal access and full inter-country connectivity.
MCIT has always been keen to secure a seat on the Union’s Administrative Council, where it has the opportunity to participate in designing the future plan of the Union, to actively contribute to the development of the ICT in Africa and encourage the transformation of the continent to the knowledge-based society.
Main areas of cooperation include innovation and entrepreneurship, being on the top of the strategic plan of the ATU for the coming two years (2020 – 2022). Egypt is currently establishing a strategic partnership with the ATU to advance this goal.
Egypt was one of the key players in the “Innovation Challenge”, that the ATU initiated in September 2020, inviting African innovators to submit their inventions/ideas to combat the spread of the COVID-19. MCIT is enhancing cooperation with Member States by inviting them to join the African App Launchpad (AAL) initiative.