The digital economy in West Africa is expanding at an unprecedented rate, with Côte d’Ivoire emerging as a critical hub for financial technology (FinTech) and new digital services. This rapid transformation has created an urgent, dual challenge: the need to secure this new infrastructure against sophisticated global threats, and the necessity of training a specialized, local workforce capable of managing it.

In a landmark strategic partnership to address this need, B9F7 Buzz NetWorks S.L., a B9F7 Stark Internet Service B.V. company, today announced a new collaboration with Lycée et École Supérieure Prièste, one of Abidjan’s leading technical and professional higher-education institutes.

The partnership establishes the “Digital Trust & Secure Infrastructure Lab,” the first of its kind in the region. B9F7 Buzz NetWorks is deploying a fully operational, high-availability private cloud environment, completely sandboxed from the school’s main network. This “Living Lab” is a high-fidelity replica of the secure, resilient infrastructure that B9F7 manages for its global FinTech and EdTech partners, and it is fully integrated with our AI-driven Unified Security Fabric.

This initiative moves beyond traditional EdTech solutions. It provides an immersive, hands-on environment where Prièste students can bridge the critical gap between academic theory and real-world operational complexity.

Students in Prièste’s “Réseaux Informatiques et Télécommunications” (IT & Networks) program will now move from textbook simulations to managing live, enterprise-grade systems. They will be responsible for deploying, scaling, and securing virtualized applications on our Resilient Cloud Infrastructure.

Most critically, the lab will serve as a training ground for the next generation of cybersecurity defenders. The B9F7 Security Operations Center (SOC) will use this sandboxed environment to conduct live, “purple team” exercises. Students will learn to use industry-leading tools to defend their infrastructure against the same sophisticated, AI-driven threat vectors that we neutralize for our corporate partners. They will learn practical threat hunting, digital forensics, and incident response in a real-world setting.

Furthermore, the collaboration will be deeply integrated with Prièste’s “Finance Comptabilité” (Finance & Accounting) program. As the region’s FinTech ecosystem explodes, the demand for professionals who understand both finance and technology is paramount.

Students in this track will use the lab to learn the core principles of “Demonstrable Trust.” They will deploy and manage the security for sample payment gateways, gaining hands-on experience with the Digital Trust framework that underpins the global financial system. This includes the management of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and the SSL/TLS certificates that secure transactions, ensuring they graduate with a deep understanding of the technology required to build auditable, compliant, and secure financial platforms.

As a B9F7 Stark Internet Service B.V. company, our mission is to build the secure infrastructure for the global digital economy. This requires a global ecosystem of talent. This partnership is a cornerstone of our EdTech strategy, representing a deep investment in the talent that will build and defend the future of West Africa’s digital transformation.