Cybersecurity will be one of the main agenda items of the Connected Summit 2017. This follows the rapid rise of cybercrime as hackers increasingly target the Kenyan digital economy amidst continued proliferation of financial technology and internet banking.
Speaking when he received sponsorship cheques totaling to Kshs 17 million from players in the ICT sector, Robert Mugo, the ICT Authority (ICT-A) CEO noted that new financial transactions platforms come with a new risk profile that has necessitated stakeholders in the financial technology space to focus on balancing innovation with prudent risk management.
(TOP: ICT Authority Ag. CEO Robert Mugo (left), receives sponsorship for Connected Summit 2017 from Microsoft Country Manager, Kunle Awosika and Lilian Nganda, Microsoft Communications Manager. BELOW: Partner – Marketing Manager for CISCO East Africa and Indian Ocean Islands, Amreen Kana; Head of Marketing, Enterprise Division – Telkom Kenya, Catherine Mburu; GM for CISCO East Africa and Indian Ocean Islands, David Bunei; GM at Dimension Data East Africa, Ndung’u Kahindo; MD – Carrier Services Division, Kebaso George Mokogi and Ag. CEO – ICT Authority, Robert Mugo, at the presentation of the sponsorship chèque for this year’s Connected Summit 2017).
Mugo noted that the distinction between banks and mobile network operators, for example, continue to diminish, “This development provides additional economic interactions, raises new frontiers, questions and invites novel responses from regulatory to operational interventions,” said Mugo.
Deliberations from the forum, he added, would the help the country map a future of economic prosperity using ICTs based solutions, as well as review achievements and lessons learnt in both public and private sector.
The summit themed “Shaping the future” will bring together senior government officials, county representatives, private sector players and authorities in ICT to highlight the needs on the ground as public sector endeavors to deliver efficient services to the citizen.
Billed as one the largest ICT forums in the region, the summit has already secured platinum sponsorships from companies such as Cisco, Dimension Data and Telkom Kenya. “We have also secure tremendous support from organisations such as Oracle, Huawei, Tespok, JP Sa Couto SA, Avanti, Intel, Safaricom and Citibank,” said Mugo.
Other topics slated for discussion include Internet of Things (IoT), innovation for service delivery and business, innovation as enabler of development, the future of technology in education and analytics and big data among others.
The ICT-A boss observed that the fact that private entities in this era actively collect and keep citizens’ data was becoming a concern a people increasingly question how this data is used. One of the key objectives of the Connected Summit is to develop and recommend policy, regulatory and operational interventions necessary to ensure management of citizens’ data for mutual benefit of both the Government and private Sector.
He added that by deliberating on efforts to date and examining lessons learnt, delegates at Connected Summit 2017 will explore and identify issues that arise and the need to be addressed in order to better harness the data resource on citizens.
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