Nairobi: Preparations for the continent’s ICT premier event of the year, Connected Africa Summit 2024, are in top gear, the Cabinet Secretary for Information, Communications and the Digital Economy, Eliud Owalo has confirmed.

Speaking at Uhuru Gardens, Nairobi, where he did a recce of the event which kicks off on the 21st of this month, CS Owalo indicated that its all systems go in the event seeking to shape the future of a connected Africa.

CS Owalo also held a session with over 30 government and private sector-led institutions.

The institutions drawn from Europe, America, Asia, Kenya, and the wider African Continent will showcase the latest advancements in technological innovation as sponsors of the summit.

“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.” said CS Owalo.

The CS who was accompanied by Eng. 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.” The CS added.

On his part, PS Eng. Tanui who spoke at an earlier media briefing highlighted the government’s commitment through partnerships with media and other organizations 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 21st to 25th of 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.”

He added: “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 25th 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.

Stanley Kamanguya, CEO of the ICT Authority noted the importance of the Summit in incubating ideas and urged innovators and institutions to take part in leapfrogging Africa’s innovation to greater heights.

He said: “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.”

The summit nurtures innovative ideas and partnerships that leverage technology to advance Africa's development agenda.

Both the media breakfast briefing and assessment session at Uhuru Gardens were also attended by John Paul Okwiri, CEO, Konza Technopolis, Lilian Kimeto, CEO, Kenya Year Book Editorial Board, Mr. David Mugonyi, Director General, Communications Authority of Kenya, Immanuel Kassait, Data Commissier, Office of the Data Protection Commissioner and key leaders from the government.

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.

The Summit will act as a platform where African leaders can position the African tech agenda in readiness for the UN Summit of the Future to be held in September 2024 and deter mine their role in green technology and governance of generative AI for African realities.

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For more information, please visit: www.connected.go.ke