Digitalisation has been a highly strategic area since the turn of the Century. During that time,Sub-Saharan Africa has seen the emergence of many new actors in its digital ecosystems.Ensuring that the development of these systems put humans at the forefront, whilst actively promoting data sovereignty, privacy, and inclusivity, is a matter of great importance. This study presents an assessment of the European Union’s external cooperation for development in the cross-cutting field of digitalisation in SSA and lessons learnt and recommendations to inform current and future cooperation work.