Several Heads of State attending the ‘Connect Africa’ Summit in Kigali have called for an end to unproductive conferences. They said it was time to quickly put into action what has already been discussed.“For over the past years, we have been attending unending summits…I was afraid that this will also turn out to be one of them but after finding out what was on the agenda, I don’t regret having came,” Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade said.Wade who is also the chairman of ICT in Africa said that this should be the last meeting to bring people together before the implementation of previous resolutions.Malawian President Dr Bingwa wa Muthalika echoed the same remarks saying that several conferences have taken place and others followed without any fulfilling earlier commitments.“All that changes are slogans and themes but in the end you find them the same, Africans should be in a driver’s seat to lead the way for Information Technology in Africa and we should not be there as a passenger but as a driver,” Muthalika, one of the five African Heads of State attending the high level summit, said.He said: “Through technology, I want at one time to travel from Lilongwe (in Malawi) to Senegal by train; we must open our infrastructures to serve continental purposes if we need to develop.”The summit seeks to help bring connectivity to the continent and promote ‘Connect Africa,’ a new partnership that seeks to expand the ICT infrastructure of the continent, especially broadband Internet. The ultimate aim is to attract investment needed for employment and economic growth, thus improved living standards of the masses.The Secretary General of International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Dr Hamadoun Toure said that what brings together all the partners in the meeting is to do business. “We have Heads of State here that have a dream of bringing Africa together through ICT; this dream will be realized with the help of private sector which is largely represented here, and we want the success factor from this landmark meeting to be agreements between governments and private companies,” he said.He said that already several projects have already been signed even before the meeting ended.“Africa has been characterized by aid for the last 50 years which have been of close to no help; this is the time we engage in profitable business and this is possible, an example is the mobile telecommunication network that for the past few years has grown to up to 20 percent of the whole continent,” he said.The chairman of the Economic Commission for Africa, Prof. Alfa Omar Konare called upon African heads of start emulating President Paul Kagame. ‘Address conflicts’ “To correctly understand what this country has gone through and get the right picture of how it has transformed, you should visit a place called Gisozi (Genocide Memorial Centre) from here; you will gain a lot of experience,” Konare said. He said that the major lesson from there will help to make the delegates understand the urgent need to address the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).Konare, a former Malian president, said that it this is the right time to do away with conflicts to which Africa has been subjected over the years and embark on development.“After this conference, we want a common African position on these issues and all delegates here have to go back to their respective countries and lobby for the support of the Digital Solidarity Fund to which only 25 African states have pledged commitment,” he said. Big turnupOther Heads of State present are Burundi’s Jean Pierre Nkurunziza, Djibouti’s Ismael Omar Guelleh, Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso and Swazi Deputy Premier Constance Simelane. Also present is the President of the African Development Bank (ADB) Dr Donald Kaberuka, among other top executive of multinational agencies.Companies represented include GSM association, Ericsson, Huawei Technologies, Orange UK, Main Street Technologies, Cisco systems, Safaricom, Grameen Foundation Technology Centre, RASCOM, Qualconn, Nokia Siemens Networks Thuraya Telecommunication Corporation. Konare lauded the huge representation of the private sector saying that governments should seize the opportunity to enact better regulations for companies to invest in the ICT sector. Participating companies are expected to make financial pledges to help boost ICT on the continent. Ends
