DIG ITAL AFRICACONFERENCE & EXHIBITION

SHEHU YAR’ADUA CENTRE, ABUJA. | 5 - 7 JUNE, 2018

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COMMUNIQUE2018

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25th - 27th JUNE,2019

DIG ITAL AFRICA

AFR CA’SC RENAISSANCE:

Theme:

POSITIONING AFRICA FOR AN AGE OF ABUNDANCE

CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION 2019

The 6 th edition of the Digital Africa Conference & Exhibition was held on June 5-7, 2018 at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja and had as its theme: “Africa’s Tech Renaissance.”

The conference had in attendance, high profile government officials, regulators, ICT professionals from across the African continent, eminent scholars, ICT enthusiasts, solutions providers, exhibitors, tech startups, students and other various Stakeholders. Participants were exposed to the marvels of technologies and how these have been affecting our lives and reshaping our economic, social, cultural, and human environments.

The objective of the 2018 edition was to determine where Africa lost her leadership position in global science and technology rankings and why the continent must rediscover herself in the technology space especially against the background of the global acclaim that Africa is the mother of civilization.

This year’s Conference focused on such areas as Africa’s current position in technology deployment, business of technology, Fintech disruption, the future of taxation and technology-driven government revenues, Agriculture, Startups and Innovation, and Education.

The Conference took cognizance of Africa’s position as the cradle of civilization and recognized Africa’s rich and diverse history of the sciences and of technology developments. Therefore, Africa must position herself to leverage the benefits provided by emerging technologies to provide the much needed solutions to her developmental struggles. The Federal Government of Nigeria was also commended for its commitment to ensuring the use of innovations in advancing the adoption of science and technology in the process of national development.

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During the three-day programme, speakers, participants and young innovators networked and shared relevant knowledge and experiences. There was also a well-attended exhibition that ran concurrently and showcased different types of technologies and home grown solutions in alignment with the theme of the conference. Highpoints of the conference were the product launch by Chams Plc, the unveiling of eKasuwa, a start-up company and the emergence of hubs.ng and Farmcap, the winners of the 2018 edition of the Face-off.

We, therefore, most sincerely congratulate all the speakers, the resource persons, and young innovators at the 3-day event for sharing their knowledge with us. We congratulate all the delegates for joining us in exposing to the authorities in Africa, the greater promise provided by emerging technologies, and how we can apply them as a people to gain comparative advantage and provide solutions to our developmental struggles.

RECOMMENDATIONS The 2018 edition of Digital Africa Conference & Exhibition ended with participants unanimously making the following observations and recommendations (Communiqué) as their little contribution to the efforts of reawakening Africa’s technology consciousness:

Government Role and Responsibilities1. The conference unanimously agreed that there is an urgent need for Africa’s Tech Renaissance and Rebirth. Therefore, African countries must devise the quickest means of relaunching the continent back to technology reckoning so as to compete well with technologically advanced countries. The African Union (AU) should spearhead continental effort towards this rebirth. Each of the countries in Africa should also determine their respective arrears of comparative advantage and fashion out their own plan to lead in the chosen domains.

2. The Conference tasked the African Union and African Governments to show the political will in making policies that will encourage seamless adoption and application of the emerging technologies and ways of doing things as well as providing the enabling environment to ensure the smooth sailing of ICT initiatives and projects.

3. Considering the state of things in Africa with regards to economic development and the standard of living of the people it was agreed that there is a positive correlation between the level of development in Information Technology of a country and the level of economic development of that country. Therefore, there is need for African countries to do more in the building and deployment of technology applications in order for them to enjoy concomitant level of economic development.

4. Africa is a continent blessed with great opportunities and potentials and the ultimate goal of governance is to empower and accelerate the ability to make informed service decisions and to help in achieving desired goals and objectives. Thus the Conference agreed that there is a need for collaboration in ensuring that these emerging technologies are harnessed successfully as effective governance plays a key role in mitigating the challenges associated with emerging technologies.

5. We advocate that governments in Africa must approach the continent’s technological rebirth with strong commitment. In this regard, African countries should consider establishing special agencies that will steer Africa’s gradual technological rebirth. Such agencies should be charged with the financing of innovations, e-commerce, strategic management of intellectual capital and property, promotion of technological development through partnerships and the use of such networks as knowledge bases, virtual corporations and virtual centres of excellence.

Private Sector Involvement6. In our effort at rejuvenating Africa’s interest in technology development and usage, we must appreciate the fact that a number of countries on the African continent are poised to reap the economic benefits of increased investment in science and technology. Investment in this sector has helped stimulate economic growth in regions that embrace innovative solutions as catalysts to accelerated development. Therefore, we call on African countries to invest more in science and technology to enhance accelerated development.

7. The Conference commended the plan of the Nigerian Government to set up a Creativity and Technology Council to support innovation and startups in the creative industry. We salute the government’s plan to strengthen the technology and innovation ecosystem in Nigeria by supporting the development of innovation hubs in partnership with the private sector. It urged other African countries yet to do these to borrow a leaf from Nigeria and others that have initiated this move.

8. As a continent, Africa should depend on research for advancement. Without proper research, we will lack knowledge of how to deal with the present and future problems that are confronting us and will confront us as a continent. We, therefore,

advocate that African countries self-fund research programmes instead of relying on international agencies for research funding as this is dangerous to national security.

Education9. We advocate that there is need for African countries to start looking inward for technological rebirth and advancement. Nigeria in particular, needs to develop a new academic curriculum that will drive innovation in the country and move the country from analog to digital economy.

10. Policy formulators and drivers should stop being secretive about things that aid national development. The solution for every country’s problem they say, is within that country. We must change the way we create our school curriculum and syllabus for our educational system to be revamped. Our children should be exposed to the technologies of today as early as their primary school level to help build a technological Africa of our dream, and the technology renaissance that we crave for.

11. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is creating new realities for the educational sector globally. There is therefore, the urgent need for African countries to face the reality, embrace and inculcate technology in our educational planning to enable our children acquire the necessary knowledge needed to succeed in today’s knowledge economy. This would equally change the existing mentality of our children just going to school to obtain a certificate.

Fintech12. Disruptions driven by technology are evident in the financial sector, and these disruptions are growing by the day. We have to face the reality today that a big shake-up is imminent in the entire financial ecosystem. Banks should therefore, take advantage of the disruptions happening in Fintech and endeavor to provide better services to their customers as people care more about the services they get than the banking institution.

Taxation13. In Nigeria, we have seen that the Treasury Single Account (TSA), and the Bank Verification Number (BVN) have contributed to whatever successful savings the current

Nigerian government has made. It shows that technology has a lot of positives it is bringing to governance. We call on government to deploy more technology in its taxation processes as it is evident that the country has no coordinated approach of acquiring data and collecting tax, explaining why there is multiple taxation of individuals and corporate entities in the country.

Agriculture14. The Conference agreed that the Agricultural Sector in Africa is one of the key drivers of the economy. It has the potentials to open up more employment opportunities, create wealth and guarantee adequate food for our rapidly growing population. In Africa, Digital Agriculture is an emerging field focusing on the enhancement of agricultural and rural development through improved information and communication processes. As a Continent, we need to take advantage of this and properly position ourself in this emerging opportunity to grow the economy.

15. Technology has made food production an all-season project. It is time therefore, for Africa to rise up to the challenge of producing adequate food for her populace. Towards this end, our farmers should be trained and retrained on the use of digital technology for the enhancement of food production in our countries. Government should in addition, provide or even subsidize farming technology tools that would facilitate adequate food production and supply across the continent.

Finally, the future of our continent depends on the creativity and innovations of our youth. Technology, innovation and youth entrepreneurship cannot be ignored. African governments should as a matter of importance, continuously invest in that future and encourage our young minds to be both entrepreneurs and pacesetters.

Governments should show enough commitment to stimulating growth in their economies by investing in their youths. This is the cardinal pathway to building sustainable growth.

Compiled and presented by Mr. Rommy Imah and Adopted this 7th day of June, 2018 by all participants at the Digital Africa Conference & Exhibition 2018.

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What is it?The major Tech show Expo on the earth

When is it?January 8-11, 2019 in Las Vegas, NV, USA