Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) and Orange S.A. (EPA: ORA) have signed a collaboration agreement as part of a joint plan to accelerate cloud-led digital transformation in West Africa.

Under the agreement, the two companies will assess plans to build Oracle Cloud regions using Orange’s infrastructure in Senegal and Ivory Coast.

The companies also announced plans to jointly offer cloud services for enterprises and public sector organisations in the West Africa, starting with offerings in Senegal and Ivory Coast.

For this initiative, Orange plans to use Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) to complement its portfolio of enterprise-grade managed cloud services.

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Orange has more than 130 million customers in the West Africa region. The planned joint go-to-market model is intended to support West African enterprises and public organizations in addressing the challenge of digital transformation through advanced cloud services, enabling operational efficiency, lower costs, and high security standards.

The two companies also plan to collaborate on a project to migrate part of Orange’s internal applications onto Oracle Cloud in order to generate greater efficiencies through digitalisation, particularly in administrative processes.

Discussions are ongoing to jointly define the scope, conditions and feasibility of this strategic step, which has the potential to generate considerable synergies across the Group’s footprint in the region.

Finally, Oracle and Orange intend to jointly promote their health solutions, especially in the area of vaccination. Such cooperation has the potential to bring considerable benefits to local populations, particularly in the light of the ongoing Covid19 pandemic, through a fully-digitalised process and improved stock management.

Alioune Ndiaye, Chairman and CEO, Orange Middle-East and Africa, said: “We strongly believe that digital technology is a catalyst for economic transformation on the African continent, contributing to sustainable employment and socio-economic development.

“Cloud infrastructure is one of the key solutions Orange brings to companies and public institutions in its role as a multi-service operator. Oracle’s industry-recognized solutions should bring additional value to Orange’s Cloud portfolio.”

Clay Magouyrk, executive vice president, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, said: “With improved bandwidth access, and increased awareness of the benefits of cloud computing, organisations in the West and Sub-Saharan Africa region have begun exploring migrating workloads to the cloud. This initiative with Orange is an important step toward introducing world-class cloud infrastructure in the region.”

Also commenting, Jonathan Tikochinsky, executive vice president, Global Strategic Clients Group at Oracle, said: “As organisations in West Africa start their digital transformations, we look forward to joining with Orange to offer a rich portfolio of cloud infrastructure services.

“This partnership brings the power of Oracle’s OCI services and Orange’s extensive managed cloud services that will empower organizations to take advantage of the efficiency, cost savings and increased security that the cloud provides.”