From 14 – 16 May 2019 Rwanda will be hosting Transform Africa Summit which aims at bringing together global and regional leaders from government, business and international organizations to collaborate on new ways of shaping, accelerating and sustaining Africa’s on-going digital revolution. The fifth Summit which bring together over 4000 delegates is under the theme “Boosting Africa’s Digital Economy”.

The summit started with the launch of the Economic Forum which was officially launched by The Prime Minister Eduard Ngirente said “Thecontinent-wide digital market will enable Africa to fully reap the benefits of the digital transformation, attract large scale investments and create jobs. Africa has the fastest growing youth population with more 140 million young people now than a decade ago. By 2028, the African continent will be hosting almost one billion people under the age of 25. This young population presents an opportunity to optimize adoption of technologies as the younger generation is eager to embrace the digital era.”

During her opening remarks, The Minister of ICT and Innovation; Paula Ingabire said that there is need to ensure that startups with genuine solutions are not suffocated by large companies.

“Digital technologies unlock opportunities for young entrepreneurs to directly access global value chains and foreign markets, and compete at the same level as large corporations. Therefore, empowering them and easing their exploration into digital technologies is imperative to enabling African transformation. Through the Kigali Innovation City, Rwanda is opening up to Africa and the world as a Proof of Concept Hub to attract talent, build and test innovative ideas and reach the rest of Africa and the world from here.” Said Minister Paula Ingabire.

Geared towards connecting, innovating and transforming the continent into a knowledge economy thereby driving global competitiveness and job creation, Transform Africa Summit aims to enable Member States to become more competitive, agile, open and innovative smart economies with the most favourable business climates that attract large-scale investments, reward entrepreneurship and enable fast growth and exports, leveraging ICT innovations to transform African nations into smart societies.

The participants include Heads of State and Government, First Ladies, UN Broadband Commissioners, Ministers, Regulators, Mayors & Governors, Public & Private Sector, International Organizations, Industry Leaders, Investors, Entrepreneurs, Young Innovators, Civil Society and Academia.