The Sunday News
Mthabisi Tshuma and Caroline Mutsawu
THE Transform Africa Summit has started here in Victoria Falls where five Heads of State from Africa graced the official opening ceremony held at the Elephant Hills Resort.
The summit kicked off on Wednesday in Victoria Falls and ends on Friday with over 100 countries from the continent participating.
Transform Africa is a great opportunity for African leaders and digital experts to share knowledge of how Africa can accelerate its digitalisation.
Five Heads of State attended the first day of the event and these included host Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa, President Lazarus Chakwera of Malawi, President Hakainde Hichilema of Zambia, Paul Kagame of Rwanda and King Mswati III of the Kingdom of Eswatini.
The summit is running under the theme, “Connect, Innovate, and Transform”.
In his opening remarks, Minister of Information Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services, Dr Jenfan Muswere said the summit creates a platform for countries to learn from each other and share information that will see Africa achieve the Vision 2030 Movement.
“We’re committed to working with our brothers and sisters and with our International parties to build a digital Africa that benefits everyone by ensuring that we leave no one and no place behind.
“Zimbabwe in its quest to become a Smart nation has made great strides in the digitisation agenda under the visionary of President ED Mnangagwa,” said Dr Muswere.
He said the Zimbabwean Government has recognised the importance of digital transformation and made it a priority.
“A national Information Communication Technology (ICT) policy has been enacted to provide a framework for the development of the ICT sector in Zimbabwe.
“In recent years, Zimbabwe’s ICT sector has grown and this has contributed significantly to the growth of the GDP thereby creating employment opportunities for the youth. We’ve also seen the emergence of vibrant start-up ecosystems and the growth of e-commerce and digital services,” said Dr Muswere.
The sixth edition of the Transform Africa Summit coincided with the tenth anniversary of the summit Smart Africa.
Speaking at the official opening ceremony, Smart Africa director general Mr. Lacina Koné said ten years is an august occasion to pause and look back at this ten-year journey.
“Today we express our deepest appreciation to the founding fathers. The Smart Africa Alliance was launched during the first Transform Africa Summit in October 2013 by seven Heads of State, with a mandate to drive Africa’s socioeconomic development by leveraging the transformative power of digital transformation.
“A modest but important beginning. A seed was planted 10 years ago, a seed to transform Africa into the continent we all want. So, as we look back as to whether we have been true and faithful to the dreams of our founding fathers, we can say with pride that we have played our part. Our 10 years journey has been marked by strong and meaningful multi-stakeholders collaboration and partnerships through practical projects and initiatives, with one shared vision: “Accelerating the creation of a single digital market by 2030”,” said Mr Koné.
He said the company has grown from seven member states in 2013 into an Alliance of 36 member states representing a population of more than 1.1 billion people and we are still growing.
“The partners of the Alliance have grown over the years from all continents. We worked and aligned interventions with more than 100 partners including development agencies and funding organizations such as BMZ/GIZ, EU, World Bank, NORAD, African Development Bank and BADEA.
“We contributed to achieving continental strategic blueprints, toolkits and policies, projects that cut across affordable, safe internet for all, digital identification for socio-economic growth, digital literacy for job creation, gender equity and creating an enabling environment for businesses, just to name a few,” he said.
Mr Koné said this is an ongoing growth of Smart Africa is a testament of the tangible value that we consistently deliver.
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