Airtel Africa, has signed an agreement with the East African Business Summit (EABS) to be a partner in the upcoming regional summit slated for October in Rwanda.
Through Airtel Money, the company will be one of the partners of the two-day summit, scheduled to take place on October 16 and October 17, 2014 in Kigali, Rwanda.
Held bi-annually, the Summit brings together the region’s top business minds from Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania Burundi and Uganda, to engage with thought-leaders, policy makers, practitioners and development actors with a view to find and influence the implementation of solutions that create growth of the East Africa market.
Mr. Christian de Faria, Airtel Africa’s CEO said: “This is a great opportunity for business leaders to put their heads together and deliberate on ideas that can take our economies to the next level as regional integration shapes up. As a company at the vanguard of technological innovation in the region, we see this as a perfect platform to contribute towards solving socio-economic issues, especially through mobile technology.”
Commenting on the partnership, East Africa Business Summit (EABS) 2014 Chair Mr. Linus Gitahi said: “We are excited to have Airtel Money on board as a partner. This demonstrates increased confidence that the business community has on the impact the summit continues to have in championing inclusive development across East Africa. We look forward to Airtel’s participation as top business and government leaders converge to address wide-ranging development issues affecting the region.”
The partnership agreement with Airtel comes at a time when Rwanda’s central bank, National Bank of Rwanda, has approved the company’s intention to roll out its mobile money transfer service – Airtel Money – in the region.
East Africa Business Summit was established in 2002 as a joint initiative of Citibank, Deloitte, KPMG, Nation Media Group, PwC and The Serena Hotels.