As new technologies and innovations emerge and become ubiquitous and demanding, African communications ministers led by Nigeria’s Communications Minister, Barrister Adebayo Shittu, and his Ghanaian counterpart, Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, will file out on September 6 and 7 in Nigeria with their Indian counterpart, Shri Manoj Sinha in a determined effort to fashion the future of Africa’s Information and Communications Technology industry.
The occasion is the Indo-Africa ICT Expo & Summit 2017, a two-day forum designed under the auspices of strengthening Indo-African relations essentially to move the African ICT industry to greater heights with the theme ‘Digital Dreams of Developing Nations’.
As explained by Shri Rajesk Kumar Bhatnagar, the Director-General of the Telecom Equipment and Services Export Promotion Council (TEPC), a body set up by the Indian Government, which is organising the event, the programme presents African ICT experts a unique opportunity to present and review their nations’ ICT plans over short, medium and long term periods.
“Digital Transformation is the need of the time for all the developing world; nations in Africa and India can share their experiences on embracing digital technologies, digital competencies, digital literacy for re-inventing lives and changes covering all aspects of human society in the respective nations,” Shri Bhatnagar noted.
Other topics for the conference also range from training, regulation in telecom sector, convergence of IT and Telecom, e-Health, e-Governance, e-education, e-finance, infrastructure, new technologies, standardisation, spectrum auction & optimisation, licensing, evolving needs of consumers, service providers, among others.
India’s giant strides in ICTs are globally recognised as a shiny example for all developing economies to emulate, hence, this event being organised by the TEPC in conjunction with the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) of India offers the African continent a huge opportunity to learn and adopt new strategies for technology growth.
Newly appointed Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Communications, AlhajiAbdulaziz M. Abdullahi, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar G. Danbatta, Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the Managing Directors of Galaxy Backbone, Mr. Yusuf Kazaure and Nigeria Communication Satellite Limited, Mrs. Abimbola Alale, as well as the Director-General of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Engr. Aliyu Abubakar Aziz are top on the list of speakers and dignitaries for the event.
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