From this Tuesday 17 October 2023 to 19, the renowned Mobile World Congress is taking place in Kigali the capital of Rwanda with the theme: Velocity: Unleashing Tomorrow's Technology – Today.  The event brought together policymakers and global business leaders for three days of discussion on innovations in mobile technology and Africa’s rapidly evolving connectivity ecosystem.

While officially opening the conference, H.E the President of the Republic of Rwanda Paul Kagame called upon participants to contribute towards the acceleration of technological efforts to ensure many Africans get online, as there is no longer any doubt about the impact of digital connectivity on socioeconomic development.

He further pointed out that for Africa to fully leverage the trickledown effect of technology and maximize the demographic dividend of its young population, more Africans need to get connected and the cost of connectivity should be lowered.

He promised the government’s role which is to maintain an enabling environment and a level playing field, something he said shows the power of collaboration among the private sector, government and strategic humanity.

As the conference opens, the annual Mobile Economy Sub-Saharan Africa Report was shared with participants and revealed a considerable mobile internet usage gap of 59% in Sub-Saharan Africa. The usage gap refers to individuals who are not using mobile internet despite living in an area covered by mobile broadband networks. According to the report, countries with highest mobile internet penetration rate in Sub-Saharan Africa is over 50% in Mauritius, South Africa and the Seychelles while the lowest rate is 15% and below found in Benin, Chad and the Democratic Republic of Congo which represent countries with the fewest mobile internet users.  

Some of the topics being discussed are: Girls & women in ICT, emerging technologies, Digital Health Deals, Fintech innovations, accelerating digital gender equality, cybersecurity issues among others. Among the speakers include global Technology business leaders, representatives of big telecommunication organizations such as ITU, Ethiopia Telecom, Huawei, MTN Group, the Rwandan Ministry of ICT and Innovation, the SAMENA Telecommunications Council, Smart Africa, Take Back the Mic and ZTE Corporation.