The Transform Africa Summit to Engage on Reducing Africa’s Internet Costs by 50%

KIGALI, Rwanda, 2021-Jun-22 — /EPR Network/ — Internet costs in Africa remain among the highest in the world. The 6^th Transform Africa Summit, hosted by Smart Africa, will engage with over 30 African countries on how internet costs can be reduced in Africa by as much as 50%.

The summit, being hosted in hybrid format from the 8^th to the 10^th of September, will host governments from over 30 countries in Africa, delegates from over 100 countries, the largest technology firms in the world, entrepreneurs and top Academics. It is at this platform that Smart Africa will engage on details of Africa’s blueprint on broadband connectivity called the Smart Broadband 2025 Strategy. This strategy was approved by Heads of State from Smart Africa Alliance member countries in December 2020.

Among other key aspects, the strategy aims to increase broadband penetration in Africa from 34% in 2019 to 51% by 2025. Broadband connectivity has immense benefits for Africa’s schools, entrepreneurs, health systems and socio-economic development. Therefore, expanding connectivity will ensure that Africa can harness the benefits of internet connectivity.

Apart from making the internet accessible, Smart Africa aims to make it affordable as well. Africa cannot benefit from internet connectivity if the connectivity is unaffordable. Therefore, Smart Africa has several key initiatives aimed at reducing the cost of internet connectivity by as much as 50%. This would bring immense benefits to businesses and any other industries that rely on connectivity to grow and develop. This discussion will be at the centre of the Transform Africa Summit 2021.

In addition to broadband connectivity, the Transform Africa Summit will also have core engagements in Digital Health, AgriTech, Digital Identity, Fintech, Trade, Start-ups and Innovation Ecosystems and ICT Capacity Building among other key topics.

The theme of this year’s summit is “Integrating Africa” aiming to push Africa towards post-COVID recovery and the transition into a knowledge-based economy. It is critical to ensure that African countries successfully make the transition to the knowledge-based economy together as this will offer them unprecedented possibilities to become more competitive in world markets and to participate in the global information society.