Praia, Aug. 6, 2025 (Lusa) - Cabo Verde wants the digital economy to account for 25% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2030, but a study presented on Wednesday reveals that the country is still at an intermediate level of digital readiness.
“The inquiries carried out provided a snapshot of Cabo Verde’s current situation in terms of digital readiness. We assessed civil society, public administration and the private sector in particular, and the overall average was 3.75, which corresponds to an intermediate level of readiness,” said Margarida Mascarenhas, mentor of the study on national digital skills strategy.
The study, which involved a sample of 1,000 participants across all islands, shows that although Cabo Verdeans have some skills to perform certain tasks independently, they are still far from having sufficient digital autonomy to claim that the country is ready for the desired transformation.
“Cabo Verde’s goal is for the digital economy to represent 25% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2030, but to achieve this, it is necessary to ensure that those who buy, sell, regulate and enable payments are able to participate equally in this process, playing their role,” she said.
The results of the study will enable the country to outline actions to achieve this goal.
“In the next phases, we will propose ways to ensure that by 2030 we will be very close to or 100% of what we want, both in terms of accessibility and digital literacy,” she added.
The Secretary of State for the Digital Economy, Pedro Lopes, said that the Government wants to strengthen the digital skills of the public.
“We want to develop a strategy for digital skills, both for strengthening companies and for individuals. The goal is to have a society that is fully prepared for the information society,” he said.
“The study indicates that there is potential to double Cabo Verdean GDP by strengthening digital skills, not only for employability, which is always mentioned, but for the impact this can have on the daily lives of people and businesses,” he added.
Pedro Lopes highlighted areas such as artificial intelligence, data work and other new technological skills as fundamental for building a “true digital nation”.
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