Presidents to join 4,000 at innovation meeting

More than 4,000 participants, among them presidents and heads of government from Africa, will attend the annual Innovation Conference in Rwanda from May 10-12.

African leaders endorsed the meeting at the 2013 Transform Africa Summit.

It lays the foundation for a connected smart Africa based on ICT and access to broadband to improve accountability, efficiency and openness, put the private sector first and leverage ICT to promote sustainable development. Africa will attract $300 billion ICT investment in 10 years.

“This will set the right stage for development in their economic, social and governance sectors,” said Dr Hamadoun Toure, the Executive Director, Smart Africa.

In Education, the initiative is looking beyond ICT as a tool for better access to knowledge and an enabler to impart the right skills needed for economies, such as coding and promotion of sciences related subjects in all levels of education.

In health, technology will enable better planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of health care delivery, resulting into improved people’s quality of life.

In governance, elected leaders are able to better reach out to their constituency and increase transparency and accountability in policy implementation and delivery of their promises.

He said partnership with private sector will be key in implementing the ambitious yet realistic and achievable goals set by the Smart Africa leadership.

“Business-friendly environments are of paramount importance to reach the maximum investment potential in Africa. And this is achievable as demonstrated by several countries such as Rwanda, which has been leading in doing business rankings in Africa for the past 5 years,” said Dr Toure.