Creating Sustainable National/ International ICT Ecosystems 

Over the past year, many advances have been made in the growth and development of the African Telecom and ICT landscape. Undersea cable landings, improvements in satellite connectivity, national backbone projects and developments in wireless and mobile technologies are driving lower prices and increased penetration. Value Added Services are driving growth and encouraging increased usage while the resulting service improvements are creating more opportunities for users to easily enjoy valuable services which they previously had little or no access to.

The challenge Africa now faces, is to make these developments and the future growth of the telecom and ICT ecosystem, sustainable.

Cohesion is the key to ensuring this sustainability. Now more than ever, key stakeholders need to communicate effectively. To share their views, their goals and their challenges. Only then can they remove the bottlenecks, share a common vision and work together in a spirit of 'cooperatition' where all parties are working towards a common and sustainable objective.

We are already seeing evidence of collaboration with major infrastructure sharing deals, service outsourcing and partnerships across many other areas. Governments are opening ICT parks across Africa and supporting industry growth through Public Private Partnerships, Business Process Outsourcing, engaging more in e-Government services and other major initiatives that support the industry and the end user.

The Worlds' most successful, large organisations have long since understood the need to remove 'silo mentality' from their business and create a communications structure which cuts across departments, business units and divisions. This cross-cutting smooth flow of communication has driven innovation, cost saving efficiencies, sustainability and effective knowledge sharing.

Policy makers, regulators, service providers, end users and technology companies engaged in the African telecom and ICT industries must cut across traditional boundaries and communicate effectively to understand each other's perspectives and drive the sustainable growth of the industry.

The auspicious, 10th anniversary of the Innovation Africa - Digital Summit provides the platform which enables up to 500 of the continent’s key decision makers, policy makers, regulators, service providers, major end users, investors and senior representatives from international technology companies, to come together, connect, communicate and inter-act on a personal level. The Innovation Africa - Digital Summit is renowned for being the most effective summit for doing business in this sector, in Africa.

A highly stimulating and inter-active conference programme, facilitated networking, pre-arranged one to one business meetings and a focussed exhibition combine to ensure the success of the summit. The unique format and structure of the programme stimulates discussion, debate and valuable business transactions. Participants leave the summit with the tools and resources they need to ensure the effective development of their organisation and the sustainable growth of the telecom and ICT ecosystem for their country and Africa as a whole.

The summit will take place at the Sheraton Addis, Addis Ababa on the 27th-29th March 2012. Please register your interest and we will contact you shortly.