Five African Countries have rallied to form an alliance, called Africa ICT Alliance (AfICTA), in a move aimed at bringing the continent’s ICT sector stakeholders together, to meet the social and economic growth, as well as find solutions to ICT challenges.
The countries including Nigeria, Gambia, Egypt, Kenya, Tunisia and South Africa on Tuesday formed the alliance determined to enable the continent meet its 21st century development goals.
The alliance would serve to mobilize stakeholders to achieve the African countries’ mutual goals through effective cooperation, advocacy, and leadership, AfICTA said.
The AfICTA’s first chairman Dr. Jimson Olufuye said in a statement, the goals of the Alliance include supporting effective local and continental advocacy, improve literacy, partner with the African Union and related agencies to achieve information society targets, engage African ICT professionals and experts in global ICT governance dialogues, as well as enhance Africa’s competitiveness in the sector.
He further explained AfICTA would encourage multi-stakeholder dialogue by fostering accelerated and ICT enabled development in Africa.
“It would in addition encourage use of cutting-edge innovative technologies including mobile, computing and satellite technologies to achieve an Information Society in Africa,” Olufuye added.
The new alliance is also set to offer member countries business matchmaking, regional conferences, trade, forums and exhibitions.
Through networking and relationships, says Olufuye, AfICTA will collaborate with a wide variety of stakeholders to advance its development agenda and build capacity.
AfICTA further encouraged interested Africa’s ICT sector players to join the alliance by registering at their website, Aflicta.org.
IfCTA says ICT sector players across Africa who are interested in joining the Alliance can visit the website and register.
The five countries are also members of the World Information Technology & Services Alliance (WITSA), which harnesses the resources of the ICT sector in over 80 countries around the world to play the same enabling role in the global environment.
Olufuye is also WITSA Vice Chairman for Africa and former President of the Information Technology Industry Association of Nigeria (ITAN).
AfiCTA, as an organization for the African industry, is open to ICT associations, multi-national corporations, organizations and institutions in the ICT sector in Africa as members.
