Mauritania Country Commercial Guide
Learn about the market conditions, opportunities, regulations, and business conditions in mauritania, prepared by at U.S. Embassies worldwide by Commerce Department, State Department and other U.S. agencies’ professionals
Select Country Guide
Digital Economy
Last published date:

Overview

National Focus: Government digital economy

Mauritania is executing a state-led digital push anchored in the National Digital Transformation Agenda (2022–2025), which targets the addition of 2,500 miles of fiber backbone, stronger international links, broader 4G coverage, and expanded e-government services. Authorities have since signaled further backbone build-out beyond 2025. The government inaugurated a Tier III national data center in Nouakchott in May 2025 (EIB-backed), strengthening local hosting, cloud and sovereignty. In parallel, policy tracks include an e-commerce strategy (multi-stakeholder consultations launched 2024–2025 with UNCTAD/GIZ) and a National AI Strategy (2025–2029) to guide data/AI adoption across sectors.

Projected digital economy growth 

Digital access is rising from a modest base:  in early 2025 Mauritania counted 1.96 million internet users and 6.14 million mobile connections (1.17 connections per capita, noting multi-SIM), with most connections on mobile broadband. The new data center, fiber extensions and cross-border links are expected to lower latency and enable local cloud/CDN, while government efforts aim to double internet usage and the size of the digital sector by the end of 2025 and grow digital employment. Competitive dynamics remain telco-led with expanding 4G footprints; SME digitization, e-commerce and gov cloud uptake are the near-term growth levers.

Market Challenges  

Affordability and logistics are the binding constraints: connectivity is improving but the internet remains costly relative to incomes, which reduces e-commerce scale. Last-mile delivery and payments acceptance also lag outside major cities. Digital literacy gaps, uneven device quality, and patchy power in secondary towns limit heavy-data use. Despite the new Digital Center and fiber, business adoption of cloud and SaaS is still early, and many SMEs rely on basic messaging-commerce.

Regulatory environment 

Legal foundations are taking shape and enforcement is maturing. The legislation that governs personal data protection exists, with the governmental data protection authority (Autorité de Protection des Données, or APD) pursuing a 2023–2026 strategic plan tied to bringing the law into effective operation. Cybersecurity and data strategies complement the APD’s strategic plan, and the Ministry of Digital Transformation and Modernization of Administration has published an AI strategy (2025–2029). Ongoing UNCTAD-supported work on an e-commerce strategy aims to align consumer protection, payments, logistics and digital ID with best practice.

Digital Trade Barriers  

UNCTAD’s eTrade Readiness Assessment (2024) highlights barriers across seven pillars: limited payments interoperability and acceptance, high logistics costs and weak addressing systems, patchy legal frameworks (consumer protection, data, e-signatures), and threatened SME finance for digitalization, factors that keep many transactions informal or social-media-based. Trade facilitation is improving, but paperless processes and trusted digital identity for cross-border transactions are still developing.

Digital Trade Opportunities 

Opportunities could potentially exist in build-out open room for local cloud/hosting, government SaaS, disaster-recovery, and CDN nodes; payments modernization (including national switch upgrades) and e-commerce strategy work that create demand for PSPs, risk/fraud, KYC, and merchant enablement; and, donor programs backing last-mile logistics, address/parcel systems, and MSME digitization. With policy momentum and improving infrastructure, first movers in fintech, govtech, e-logistics, agri-marketplaces, and EdTech can scale alongside public digital services.

Cross-Sector Enabling Technologies 

Priorities now include cloud and data-center services (anchored by the Nouakchott facility), API-driven payments and digital ID/KYC, cybersecurity aligned to national strategy targets, and AI/analytics guided by the AI strategy, especially for public services, energy, fisheries monitoring, and transport optimization. Fiber and international links enable these layers; mobile broadband remains the primary access route.

Specific Industry Sub-sectors  

Near-term digitization is most active in public administration (e-gov/data exchange), financial services (switch modernization, CBDC exploration), logistics/post, and retail/e-commerce. Agriculture and fisheries are priority verticals for traceability, remote sensing, and market platforms, while energy and mining are adopting SCADA/IoT and predictive maintenance as connectivity improves. UNCTAD’s findings also point to parcel logistics and payments as catalytic sub-sectors for e-commerce growth.

Digital Economy-related trade events

Recent milestones include the launch event of the eTrade Readiness Assessment (Apr 2024) and subsequent national consultations on the e-commerce strategy (2024–2025), bringing together The Ministry of Digitalization (MTNIMA), UNCTAD and partners; and the May 2025 inauguration of the Nouakchott Data Center, framed by the EIB and government as a digital-sovereignty and private-sector enabler. These events mark tangible steps from strategy to implementation.

×

Global Business Navigator Chatbot Beta

Welcome to the Global Business Navigator, an artificial intelligence (AI) Chatbot from the International Trade Administration (ITA). This tool, currently in beta version testing, is designed to provide general information on the exporting process and the resources available to assist new and experienced U.S. exporters. The Chatbot, developed using Microsoft’s Azure AI services, is trained on ITA’s export-related content and aims to quickly get users the information they need. The Chatbot is intended to make the benefits of exporting more accessible by understanding non-expert language, idiomatic expressions, and foreign languages.

Limitations

As a beta product, the Chatbot is currently being tested and its responses may occasionally produce inaccurate or incomplete information. The Chatbot is trained to decline out of scope or inappropriate requests. The Chatbot’s knowledge is limited to the public information on the Export Solutions web pages of Trade.gov, which covers a wide range of topics on exporting. While it cannot provide responses specific to a company’s product or a specific foreign market, its reference pages will guide you to other relevant government resources and market research. Always double-check the Chatbot’s responses using the provided references or by visiting the Export Solutions web pages on Trade.gov. Do not use its responses as legal or professional advice. Inaccurate advice from the Chatbot would not be a defense to violating any export rules or regulations.

Privacy

The Chatbot does not collect information about users and does not use the contents of users’ chat history to learn new information. All feedback is anonymous. Please do not enter personally identifiable information (PII), sensitive, or proprietary information into the Chatbot. Your conversations will not be connected to other interactions or accounts with ITA. Conversations with the Chatbot may be reviewed to help ITA improve the tool and address harmful, illegal, or otherwise inappropriate questions.

Translation

The Chatbot supports a wide range of languages. Because the Chatbot is trained in English and responses are translated, you should verify the translation. For example, the Chatbot may have difficulty with acronyms, abbreviations, and nuances in a language other than English.

Privacy Program | Information Quality Guidelines | Accessibility