Eliud Owalo, the cabinet secretary for information, communications, and the digital economy with key government leaders, sponsors and partners at Uhuru Gardens after the recce ahead of the Connected Africa Summit 2024. (Image source: Connected Africa Summit)
Preparations for the highly anticipated Connected Africa Summit 2024, the continent's premier ICT event of the year, are well underway, as confirmed by Eliud Owalo, the cabinet secretary for information, communications, and the digital economy
Addressing reporters at Uhuru Gardens in Nairobi, where he conducted an inspection ahead of the event's commencement on the 21st of this month, Owalo assured that all necessary arrangements are being made for an impactful gathering aimed at shaping the future of connectivity in Africa.
Additionally, Owalo convened a productive session with representatives from over 30 government and private sector entities. These institutions, spanning from Europe, America, Asia, Kenya, and across the African continent, will serve as sponsors for the summit, showcasing cutting-edge technological innovations and fostering collaboration towards a connected future for Africa.
“We have assessed where we shall have tents mounted, we have assessed where exhibition and plenary sessions and we are here with all partners and sponsors. We have invited heads of state, global technological companies, diplomats and tech thought leaders so that we think together as one Africa family within the technological space. We envisage that at the tail end of this summit we shall have come up with a tech road map for Africa that can guide us in strengthening our policies, laws and regulations while breaking the geographical barriers,” remarked Owalo.
The CS who was accompanied by John Tanui, principal secretary, ICT and digital economy, Stanley Kamanguya, CEO, ICT Authority and key CEO’s from government institutions, sponsors and partners indicated that they are committed to ensure that the summit delivers its goal in advancing Africa to the next digital frontier.
“This summit is going to be a major platform which will able Africa think as one family from a global ICT sector. There are lot of emerging issues in our areas of operations such as AI and this Summit gives us an advantage of what we need to do in terms of policy to remain relevant,” added Owalo.
On his part, PS Eng. Tanui who spoke at an earlier media briefing highlighted the government’s commitment through partnerships with media and other organisations in ensuring that the event is successful.
“We have made a lot of progress as a country, and we would like to share this with other countries and also learn from them. We also believe this is another opportunity for media to engage more stakeholders and we invite all stakeholders to be with us from 21 to 25 April this year. The media can help us in telling the great stories in the continent and we shall be working closely with media, ICT Authority and other agencies.”
“We are going to have many conversations on connectivity, and we shall have a platform on bringing the entire Africa on how to move ahead in line with the emerging technologies.”
The local, regional and global sponsors who will participate in the Summit from 21st to 25 April in Nairobi include GIZ-Team Europe, Safaricom, Huawei Technologies, Dell Technologies Inc., Cisco, AWS, KCB, Oracle, Soliton Telmec, KEPSA, HP, Liquid Intelligent Technologies, Nokia, NiaFibre, Fortinet, Airtel, Kaspersky, Sybl, Teltonika Networks and A-Z Technologies.
The summit will feature an impressive exhibition hall showcasing the latest solutions and technologies from leading companies such as Coseke, Dimension Data, Agile Business Solutions, Techo Brain, Certiport, Pavicon, among others. The ICT Authority noted that the diverse representation of investors and institutions will advance Africa’s digital space through valuable connections and strategic investments that can be leveraged to support Africa’s youthful and innovative population.
“We have learn a lot of lessons from previous Connected Summit editions. We have seen several fundamental initiatives which have been born out of this event. We all know Huduma Centre idea which was born from Connected. We also have our e-citizen which was also born from Connected and we continue to encourage that event on this summit our young people should come and showcase,” said Kamanguya.
The summit nurtures innovative ideas and partnerships that leverage technology to advance Africa's development agenda.
The summit will also be supported by Government agencies and regulatory bodies who will also participate as exhibitors, highlighting the collaborative efforts between the public and private sectors to advance connectivity initiatives.
The partners and sponsors will get an opportunity to scale investment in Africa’s digital economy by connecting with thought leaders and policymakers who will put in place the policies that will be needed to accelerate both infrastructure development and investment in the digital economy as envisioned in the African Union’s Agenda 2063.
