Dr Hamadoun
Touré, Transform Africa’s Executive Director, speaking at last year’s
summit which attracted over 3000 delegates in Kigali. / File
More than 4,000 delegates from 80 countries are expected to converge in Kigali next month for the Transform Africa Summit 2018.
The summit will bring together African leaders, private sector
players, representatives of development partners that are active the ICT
field, among others.
Up to 22 Heads of State and Government are expected to attend the gathering due to begin on May 8.
The theme for this year’s summit revolves around a continental single digital market.
The summit will feature multiple side events covering a wide-range
of areas, including digital connectivity, digital trading and trade
facilitation, financial platforms, digital identification, and digital
content platforms.
Jean-Philbert Nsengimana, the special adviser of the Kigali-based
Smart Africa secretariat – which spearheads ICT initiatives across the
continent – told The New Times the annual summit has grown into an
important forum on the continent.
So far, 22 countries subscribe to Smart Africa, which also enjoys
the backing of several pan-African and international organisations,
multilateral companies, academia, among others. Some of the
organisations include World Bank, African Union Commission, African
Development Bank and the International Telecommunications Union. These
actors and the Smart Africa secretariat work together under a broader
framework known as Smart Africa Alliance.
Highlighting some of the impacts of last year’s summit, Nsengimana
said the meeting saw the adoption of the Smart City initiative, which
has since picked up.
“The Smart City flagship project has since become a movement across
the continent. Our member countries have embarked on Smart City
initiatives and private sector partners have come on board to invest and
provide the technical expertise that is required to drive smart
cities,” he said.
Nsengimana added: “Our partners have led the work of developing a
PPP (public-private partnership) framework for building smart cities
that will be unveiled at the upcoming summit.”
During last year’s summit, a number of agreements and deals were
clinched, including a $50 million investment deal between Rwanda and
Sheikh Rakadh Group and Ngali Holdings.
At last year’s summit, Smart Africa Alliance entered into an
agreement with Microsoft to support member countries in developing
relevant policies.
Also, Rwanda and Inmarsat, a global mobile satellite communications
firm, signed an agreement to launch a series of digital service
initiatives across Kigali.
Smart Africa Alliance was borne from the first edition of the
Transform Africa Summit in 2013 when government leaders committed to
fast-track development using IT.
The alliance membership has since grown to 22 countries and
multiple international development partners, including the World Bank,
African Union Commission, African Development Bank and the International
Telecommunications Union.
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