Kenya will hold the inaugural ICT Innovation forum, which is aimed at bringing together novel technology-based ideas, solutions and practices on 3rd March, 2015 at KICC, Nairobi. This is according to the country’s ICT Authority.
This year’s event will be graced by the county’s president Uhuru Kenyatta and it is bound to attract ICT innovators, investors, development agencies, academia, multi-nationals and local entrepreneurs. A consortium of public and private players will discuss challenges facing Kenyan innovators and opportunities. Additionally, the forum will include an ICT Expo where innovators will showcase their ICT solutions at the various levels of development.
Experts have identified intellectual property rights as being central to the development of a new brand: “Made in Kenya, Assembled in Kenya, and Sold Around the World”, which has the chance to grow the Kenya economy exponentially.
“The Innovation Forum and Expo is a unique opportunity for information sharing and co-operation between the public and private sector on emerging technologies and innovations. While we are all in agreement that tech-enterprises need to work more closely and grow, our aim to make all these great ideas commercially viable,” said Victor Kyalo, CEO-ICT Authority.
In line with the National ICT Master plan the Authority in collaboration with the Ministry of ICT seeks to boost opportunities of Kenyan innovators by supporting the growth of locally developed solutions,” added Mr. Kyalo.
The 2-day forum aims at:
Sharing game-changing innovative ideas among high-level stakeholders within key sectors of the economy such as manufacturing, tourism,
financial sector, health, agriculture, education, transport, energy and water.
Creating a consensus around the state of ICT innovation, the prevailing challenges and distilling actionable solutions
Defining next steps on how to unlock value in the ICT innovation space
Pooling for the FIRST time innovators that will help to create the next big nation
Among the key discussions topics are promoting Buy Kenya IT, build Kenya IT, Unlocking Capital, Talent development and employment, Innovation, Research and Development, growing IT exports and the place of incubation and accelerators in the innovation ecosystem.
The event aligns to the vision 2030 development blue print that identifies ICT as being an enabler of industry and having the opportunity to create wealth and jobs for the county.
Sponsors of the event include Safaricom, Microsoft, Konza Techno City and Huawei.