Smart Africa visited the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona for three days between the 25th and the 27th of February. During these three days, new Director General of the Smart Africa Secretariat Lacina Koné met members of the Smart Africa Alliance.
Owing to its presence at the MWC Barcelona, Smart Africa highlighted its commitment towards placing Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) at the centre of Africa’s socio-economic development.
Regarded as the largest mobile event in the world, the MWC Barcelona gave the Smart Africa Alliance an opportunity to meet its Platinum international members in order to solidify their collaboration. On Monday, Director General of the Smart Africa Secretariat Lacina Koné met the executive team of Ericsson –a Platinum member of the Alliance. A workshop was held on the following day by Ericsson and Smart Africa in order to develop their thought leadership and collaboration regarding their continental projects.
At the end of the first day of the Congress, Smart Africa’s Director General and Rohde & Shwarz CEO Peter Riedel talked about their recent cooperation, following the new arrival of the company as a Gold member of the Alliance.
Mr. Koné also met the World Bank-Africa which will take part to the Transform Africa Summit from the 14th to 16th of May. Both organizations have agreed to collaborate in promoting the socio-economic development of the African continent.
During the dinner co-hosted by Smart Africa and Huawei, the Director General of the Alliance held discussions with Presidents of Huawei North Africa and West Africa and Ministers of ICT and Regulators from Cote d’Ivoire, Mauritania, Gambia, Niger, Guinea.
On Tuesday, Lacina Koné will host meetings with teams from PwC and Syniverse, in addition to meetings with Nokia, Sparkle and GSMA teams on Wednesday.
During the last day of attendance on Wednesday, Smart Africa met the Vice President of Facebook, which is a Gold member of the Alliance. Lacina Koné also met Tata Communications to discuss its contribution to a single digital market in Africa. The final meeting of the day was with the executive team of Huawei.
These engagements presented the opportunity for Smart Africa to strengthen its relationships with its members of the alliance dedicated to a bold and common initiative at a continental scale.
About Smart Africa: SMART Africa is a bold and innovative commitment from African Heads of State and Government to accelerate sustainable socio-economic development on the continent, ushering Africa into a knowledge economy through affordable access to Broadband and usage of Information and Communications Technologies. The Smart Africa Alliance has since grown to include 24 African countries that represent 600+ million people, aiming at creating a Unique Digital Market in Africa. (End)