President William Ruto speaks during the official opening ceremony of the Connected Africa Summit 2024 at Uhuru Gardens
President William Ruto on Monday officially opened the inaugural Connected Africa Summit 2024 being held at Uhuru Gardens, Nairobi.
Speaking during the official opening ceremony, President Ruto placed Africa’s youth at the centre of the continent’s digital transformation agenda, noting that they are a fundamental constituency as builders and beneficiaries of a digitally-enabled society that will drive the success of everyone on the continent.
He noted that Africa’s young talent, driven by their bold creativity and indomitable entrepreneurial spirit, are at the forefront of pioneering advances in fintech, agri-tech, renewable energy and digital services.
“With their brilliant minds, they are actively contributing to the growth of the global technology sector, marking Africa as an indispensable hub of technological innovation. They are a generation that has been socialised to embrace technology as a basic need and way of life, essential not only for economic growth but also as a vital tool for solving the most pressing challenges of our time,” he said.
The President further stated that through the Summit, the continent will lay a sustainable foundation of connectivity and empower its people to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals as well as the AU’s Agenda 2063.
However, he noted that the continent still has a long way to go in preparing for the digital economy and the future of work, noting that the continent’s internet penetration rate stands at 36 per cent, which translates to 473 million users in a continent of 1.4 billion people. At the current rate of development, this figure is expected to increase by 300 million by 2030.
“We must therefore be concerned that our connectivity rate is lower than the existing potential: Despite these connections, fixed broadband penetration in Africa is only about 5 per cent, leaving us far behind other regions of the world,” he said, adding that this reality has serious implications for the continent’s ambitions for connectivity and economic transformation through the digital economy.
Under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the President said, Africa aims to harness pan-African integration to increase collective GDP from $1.7 trillion to $2.5 trillion by 2030.
“This ambition must be complemented by a strong commitment to bridge the huge digital divide that undermines our continent’s growth prospects. Globally, Africa lags behind other regions in terms of digital infrastructure coverage, access and quality. This does not have to be the case, as the most transformative interventions are only a decision away,” he said, highlighting the disparity in connectivity between people across the region.
