ECOWAS, AU deploy data management, cyber security experts to Liberia 

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union (AU) have deployed four data management and cybersecurity experts to lend critical technical support for and complement the efforts of the National Elections Commission (NEC) of Liberia.

The four who commenced work on September 26, 2026, will help manage and secure the integrity of the election data system.

A statement issued by ECOWAS in Monrovia said the move is part of measures to provide further credibility and transparency to the management and security of the electoral database of the election management body.

Functions 

It said the experts will help in carrying out risk assessment of the election results management portal; review the results management portal and identify areas of improvement, if any, and support the installation, monitoring, and troubleshooting of Microsoft SQL Server and other RDBMS packages in production, development and test environment.

They will also assist with monitoring and troubleshooting databases and all database objects relating to the Complaint Management System and other applications. 

They will assist in maintaining system software and applications software databases and implement and enforce the security of all databases.

Other functions will include helping to review, investigate, and respond to real-time alerts within the environment; reviewing real-time and historical reports for security and/or compliance violations and monitoring online security-related resources for new and emerging cyber threats.

Collaboration

The statement said the experts will work in close collaboration with NEC Data Management staff and will stay on for some time after the October 10, 2023 elections. They bring working experiences from Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, the USA, and the Middle East, among others.

The preemptive move is coming at no cost to Liberian taxpayers with ECOWAS and AU bearing all the expenses. 

Hired

The statement said two were hired by ECOWAS, while the other two by the AU as part of measures being taken by the two bodies to ensure the safety of the system, enhance its credibility, and protect and improve existing measures.

It noted that aside from helping to protect and improve the system, ECOWAS and AU believe that there will be knowledge transfer through the sharing of experiences, expertise, and new ways of doing things to help the NEC continue to build a robust system that can stand the test of time and enhance stakeholders confidence in the system.

Liberians go to the polls on October 10 to elect a president, senators and members of the House of Representatives.