An EU candidate country since 2012, Serbia is an important partner in the Western Balkans. The 2020 iteration of the Digital Evolution Scorecard
characterised Serbia as a ‘break out’ economy,
meaning that despite a relative lack of digital infrastructure the country is rapidly digitalising; internet penetration is one of the highest across the region,
standing at 79%. Over the past decade, Serbia’s digital policy has been focused on attracting foreign investment, deepening the digital transformation across the public and private sectors, and promoting economic growth in line with EU targets. These objectives have been operationalised through a series of strategies, notably the
Strategy for the Development of Information Security for the period 2017-2020 and the
Strategy for combat against cyber crime 2019-2023. The ITU
notes, however, that “while innovative, internet-based e-commerce is expected to bring significant growth and development, obsolete legislation and a lack of harmonisation with EU standards and best practice persist, hampering progress”. As the country becomes increasingly more digitalised, the challenge for Serbian cyber diplomacy will be to develop and enhance avenues of European, regional, and international cooperation.
Nigeria is Africa’s
largest economy, with a total GDP of $432.3 billion, 13.85% of which comes from the country’s budding ICT sector [
x]. Over the past decade, Nigeria has seen an extraordinary surge in digital entrepreneurship (particularly e-commerce) and mobile internet usage, both fuelled by an increase in telecom investments and smartphone purchases; this has led to a rise in internet penetration from 20% in 2009 to 50% in 2021 [
x][
x]. Nigeria is gradually emerging as Africa’s main ICT investment destination, hosting over 55 active tech hubs [
x]. Meanwhile, in October 2021, the country was the first in Africa to launch a national cryptocurrency [
x]. The rapid acceleration of Nigeria’s digital transformation, however, comes at the cost of increased cybersecurity demands. A 2020 survey showed that 86% of Nigerian companies had fallen prey to cyberattacks over the course of the year [
x]; this was the second-highest percentage worldwide and the highest in Africa. Nigeria also reported the highest number of data leakages globally [
x]. Current Nigerian priorities – outlined in the
2020-2030 Digital Strategy – include laying down the regulatory and infrastructural groundwork to facilitate digital development, as well as enabling public confidence in the digital economy. This means that cyber issues are becoming increasingly relevant for Nigerian diplomacy, especially with regard to digital trade and cybercrime.