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The 10th annual Innovation Africa Digital Summit
will be held in Addis Abeba from March 27 to 29,
2012, according to the Ministry of Communication and
Information Technology (MCIT).
MCIT is working in partnership with Extensia, an ICT
promotion company that provides market intelligence
and consultancy services, to bring the summit to
Addis Abeba.
The summit plans to bring together 350 leaders from
the African ICT industry, including ministers,
regulators, service providers, major end users and
leading international solution providers, the press
release stated.
The Innovation Africa Digital Summit is a business
summit that aims to provide a platform where all the
stakeholders in the African ICT industry and
international technology innovators can come
together and network. Previously the summit has been
held in Ghana, Egypt, four times in South Africa,
twice in Uganda and Kenya.
In the past, the summit brought positive results to
the host countries, paving the way for investments,
business deals and ICT developments, changing the
perception of the ICT industry in Africa, said
Adrian Hall, sales and marketing director of
Extensia, at a press conference held at MCIT on
August 11, 2011.
Extensia has plans to cover most expenses for the
Addis Abeba Summit through sponsorship from
international stakeholders. During previous summits,
companies like Google, IBM, Oracle and Cisco have
given contributions.
The ministry has reserved a one million Birr budget
to fill in any expenses that may not be covered
through Extensia or international sponsorship, the
information technology private sector directorate of
MCIT, informed Fortune.
Despite the expenses, the company was looking at the
bigger picture in terms of a return on investment
through the promotion of the Ethiopian ICT sector to
the western world, said Tariq Malik, CEO of Extensia.
“Ethiopia will attract international ICT that can
increase the flow of Foreign Direct Investment into
the country,” said Peter Gatkuoth Gey, state
minister of MCIT, in the press conference. “The
event will also serve as a means to promote our IT
Park, which is under construction by international
IT companies, and shows our interest in working with
international technology innovators.”
The IT Park is being built on 200ht of land behind
the Ethiopian Airlines Airport, and will help launch
e-government services in Ethiopia. It will have call
and data centres, satellite links and broadband
internet services, when finished, according to plan
in the next five years.
The principle idea behind the park is to assemble
businesses in the technology sector in one place so
that they can share information and expertise. The
Ethiopian government has invested two million Birr
for the construction of the park, during the 2010/11
budget year and will continue to fund the
construction for the next four years until the
project is complete, the PR office of MCIT informed
Fortune.
The innovation Africa Digital Summit will include
conferences, meetings and exhibitions, and will
arrange one to one meetings between companies and
people, Malik explained.
Even though the summit will only take three days,
the project in Ethiopia will continue for two years,
he also stated. Extensia usually out-sources jobs
created by the summit to people in the host
countries, permanently employing only 10 people at
its base in the UK. |
