Saudi based Digital Cooperation Organization (DCO) has announced Nigeria as new member state, according to DCO release within the week.
Nigeria joined the Sultanate of Oman as founding members. The group also includes other Islamic countries including Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia.
The statement also said, “combined, the seven countries are an economic bloc of $1.2 trillion in GDP. The population base of the seven nations is close to 480 million, 80% of whom are under 35 years of age.”
DCO convened its first ministerial meeting, chaired by H.E. Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Abdullah bin Amer Al-Swaha and was attended by ministers of the DCO countries.
During the meeting, an agreement was reached to launch five high impact initiatives. These initiatives aim at establishing a center to highlight the importance of cooperation in relation to flow of data across borders, empowerment of women in the digital labor market, in addition to serving entrepreneurship and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to grow and achieve a digital future.
It was also agreed on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s presidency of the organization until the end of current term, in addition to the appointment of Ms. Deemah Al-Yahya from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as Secretary General of the organization.
The DCO established in November 2020 as a partnership to pursue common values and goals in the digital economy, between Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Pakistan, and Jordan.
