ICT Cabinet Secretary Eliud Owalo will on Monday host all Media Editors to a breakfast briefing on the upcoming Connected Africa Summit 2024.
The Connected Africa Summit 2024, which will be held at the iconic Uhuru Gardens in Nairobi from 21st to 25th April, 2024, serves as a strategic forum to chart a course towards a digitally-empowered and interconnected future for Africa, setting the stage for unprecedented growth and prosperity as well.
It will bring together African Heads of State, Ministers of ICT, public sector representatives, private sector leaders, academia, foreign missions, development partners, sponsors, delegates and thought leaders to have a comprehensive and inclusive dialogue that reflects the diversity of Africa.
The Summit underscores the country’s commitment to work together with other stakeholders from across the continent in accelerating digital connectivity.
Leaders, stakeholders and tech partners will coalesce at this forum with the aim of unlocking investment opportunities, foster collaboration and exchange knowledge.
Topics on the agenda will include the Future of Work, Cyber-security, Artificial Intelligence, emerging technologies and the growth of the Digital Economy.
Kenya is proud to host this important Summit in line with the Government’s Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA), which has prioritized the Digital Superhighway and Creative Economy, with a specific focus on equipping the youth with digital skills for digitally-enabled jobs and digital entrepreneurship.
The government commits to bridge the digital divide across the country and reduce the cost of doing business.
The Ministry plays a critical role in delivery of the Government Core Priorities with the Digital Superhighway and Digitalization as the key thematic focus. Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) is an enabler across the Government through overall delivery of digital economy for sustainable economic development in Kenya.
In addition, the Digital Superhighway plays a critical role in making tremendous achievement of the other four (4) pillars of the government agenda: Health, Agriculture, Affordable Housing, MSME and Financing, as well as enhancing revenue collection.
Thus, the Ministry is connecting all government institutions, including schools and hospitals, onto reliable, high-speed super-fast Internet connectivity.
It is worth noting the crucial role of digital infrastructure, which is essential for facilitating the Digital Superhighway, including the National Optic Fiber Backbone Infrastructure (NOFBI) project.
Already six (6) submarine cables have landed at the Kenyan coast and another two (2) more are expected by 2025.
The Ministry is laying 100,000 kilometers of fiber optic cable within the next 5 years, setting up of Digital Hubs in all 1,450 Wards – in collaboration with Technical and Vocational Education and Training institutions (TVETs) – and 25,000 free Public WIFI hotspots – with a particular emphasis on public spaces such as markets and bus termini – all aimed at providing the youth with access to digital skills, e-services, online job opportunities, supporting the digital economy and empowering Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises. Kenya is fast becoming a destination of choice for International Conferences.
