Second CISO Conference: Minister Mahuna AKPLOGAN places digital security at the heart of the ambition for an augmented State

On Thursday 25 June 2026, the Minister of Digital Transformation and Innovation, in charge of the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy, opened the second Conference of Chief Information Security Officers, presenting cybersecurity as the very condition of Benin's digital ambition.

On Thursday 25 June 2026, the Minister of Digital Transformation and Innovation, in charge of the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy, opened the second Conference of Chief Information Security Officers, presenting cybersecurity as the very condition of Benin's digital ambition.

A State's sovereignty is no longer measured by its borders alone. It was with this powerful image that Minister Mahuna AKPLOGAN opened the second edition of the Conference of Chief Information Security Officers (CRSSI 2026), organised by the Information Systems and Digital Agency (ASIN) on 25 June 2026 in Cotonou on the theme “AI for cybersecurity and cybersecurity for AI”. Before some one hundred professionals from public administrations and the private sector, he set out the fine line of our times: a Benin that goes digital becomes a Benin that is exposed, and this exposure calls for guardians.

An achievement to be defended

For nearly a decade, Benin has laid the foundations of a digital nation: the Digital Code, the roll-out of fibre, the digitisation of public services, a digital identity for millions of citizens and one of the continent's first national artificial intelligence strategies. This achievement carries a paradoxical requirement: the more the State knows and decides quickly thanks to digital technology, the more it concentrates what it must protect. The National Digital Security Strategy and the policies for protecting critical information infrastructure respond to this reality with a simple aim: to leave no organisation alone in the face of the threat. The Director General of ASIN, Mr Marc-André LOKO, indicated that the creation of a conference dedicated to information systems security is also part of this drive.

Learning by testing, aiming higher

CRSSI 2026 was resolutely practical. The day before, a one-day cyber drill confronted the CISOs with realistic incident scenarios, alongside national and international experts. Digital security, the Minister recalled, is not learned by reading an instruction: it is tested, at full scale. The horizon set for this collective effort is that of a State augmented by emerging technologies (artificial intelligence, connected objects, increasingly interdependent systems), able to govern with greater discernment and to serve with greater accuracy

An inherited mission

In a passage that struck the audience, the Minister placed the mission of CISOs within the long history of Benin. In Abomey, the knowledge of the State was defended from reign to reign; in Nikki, the spoken word passed down the generations without ever being lost. Protecting a people's knowledge is an age-old Beninese mission. Today, the treasure has changed form (data, systems, networks) but the duty remains the same. The State that Benin is building will be one that has remained master of its intelligence and faithful to the person it serves, whether that person lives in Cotonou, in Parakou or in the most remote village in the country. It was with this conviction that the Minister declared the second Conference of Chief Information Security Officers open.