Transform Africa Summit returns

Mar 20, 2018

In a statement, Dr Hamadoun Touré, the executive director of Smart Africa Alliance, said this year’s summit will look at ways of enhancing investments in ICTs on the continent.

PIC: The event will be attended by ICT ministers of various African countires. In last year's summit, ICT minister Frank Tumwebaze said there was a lot Uganda could borrow from the summit

TECHNOLOGY

       
RWANDA - The Transform Africa Summit is back. Organised by Smart Africa and hosted by President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, the summit explores ways of enhancing socio-economic development on the African through ICT.

Now in its fourth edition, the Transform Africa Summit will be held from May 7 to 10 in Rwanda's capital, Kigali. Organisers say the event will attract over 4,000 participants from across the world and bring together Heads of State and government, First Ladies, ministers and government officials in ICT and other sectors such as infrastructure, finance, health, education and energy.

At last year's summit, a blueprint for smart African cities was unveiled. ICT minister Frank Tumwebaze, who represented President Yoweri Museveni at the summit, welcomed the blueprint, saying Uganda would borrow notes from it to transform Kampala and other urban settlements.

"At home (Uganda), we are emphasising road infrastructure, which has a direct link with broadband. So you find that when Uganda National Roads Authority constructs a road, two years later, someone digs up the road to put fibre cables," he said.

In a statement, Dr Hamadoun Touré, the executive director of Smart Africa Alliance, said this year's summit will look at ways of enhancing investments in ICTs on the continent.

"The conversations and engagements at this year's summit are aimed at fast-tracking the harmonisation of policies, regulation and rallying investments towards our goal of attracting $300b in Africa's technology sector over the next 10 years.


Smart Africa will be unveiling several initiatives and investment opportunities, including the recently launched One Africa Network and Open Waves initiatives that aim at optimising and protecting data resources on the continent."

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