Kenya selected as host of the 2024 edition of Transform Africa Summit




Kenya has won the bid to host the 2024 Transform Africa Summit (TAS) convened by the Smart Africa Alliance, a pan-African agency for ICTs. This will be the seventh edition of the annual event after the sixth Summit was held at the Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.

The announcement of Kenya’s win was made on Tuesday February 27, 2024, by Doreen Bogdan-Martin, the Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Barcelona, Spain, on the sidelines of the GSMA Mobile World Congress (MWC-24).

While accepting the win, Eliud Owalo, the CS for Information, Communications and the Digital Economy, said the achievement was stamp of confidence in Kenya’s unrivaled leadership in the ICT landscape.

‘‘This win is testament to the confidence that the Smart Africa Alliance has on Kenya as an ICT powerhouse, and a leader in championing the region’s efforts to leverage the power of ICTs for socio-economic development,’’ said Owalo.

He said Kenya accepts the outcome with a great sense of humility and was now embarking on the preparations for delivering a world class event later in the year.

‘‘We accept this win with utmost humility and joy, as it marks the beginning of a great journey ahead that will culminate in the hosting of the event in August this year,’’ added Owalo.

The CS acknowledged the efforts of the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) chaired by Prof. Edward Kisiang’ani, the PS for Broadcasting and Telecommunications, and the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) for their tireless dedication and commitment in delivery a winning bid for Kenya.

CA Board Chairperson Mary Mungai said hosting the event would give the Authority an opportunity to shape conversations on sustainable digital economy on the continent.

‘‘Hosting this event provides us with a front row experience on the future of digital transformation efforts on the continent, and how we must work across borders to forge a sustainable digital economy in the region,’’ she observed.

This is the first time the event will be held in Kenya in the 10 year history of the Smart Africa Alliance, an opportunity that the CA Director General David Mugonyi says the Authority will leverage to interact and share best practices with peers from the region to address emerging challenges in the dynamic ICT environment.

‘‘Hosting our peers from the region provides us with an opportunity to share experiences and best practices, and most importantly, forge a common and united front in leveraging ICTs for the development of our economies,’’ said Mugonyi.

The Transform Africa Summit is held annually by the Smart Africa Alliance as the continent’s leading forum bringing together global and regional leaders from government, business and international organizations to collaborate on new ways of shaping, accelerating and sustaining Africa’s on-going digital revolution.

The TAS brings together over 5,000 delegates from Africa and the world to shape the future of Africa’s digital transformation.

The Transform Africa Summit is Africa’s leading annual forum bringing together global and regional leaders from government, business and international organizations to collaborate on new ways of shaping, accelerating and sustaining Africa’s on-going digital revolution.

Geared towards connecting, innovating and transforming the continent into a knowledge economy thereby driving global competitiveness and job creation, Transform Africa Summit aims to enable Member States to become more competitive, agile, open and innovative smart economies with the most favourable business climates that attract large-scale investments, reward entrepreneurship and enable fast growth and exports, leveraging ICT innovations to transform African nations into smart societies.

The first two editions of the summit, that is the 2029 and 2020 editions, were held in Kigali, Rwanda. The summit attracts thousands of delegates, drawn from hundreds of countries. Delegates comprise of ministers, heads of international and regional organizations, captains of industry, heads of civil society organizations as well as representatives from different stakeholder agencies.

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