{"id":51850,"date":"2021-10-18T09:40:23","date_gmt":"2021-10-18T05:40:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/?p=51850"},"modified":"2021-10-18T09:40:23","modified_gmt":"2021-10-18T05:40:23","slug":"africa-set-to-become-a-digital-talent-powerhouse-according-to-experts-at-inaugural-gitex-global-leaders-vision-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/africa-set-to-become-a-digital-talent-powerhouse-according-to-experts-at-inaugural-gitex-global-leaders-vision-summit\/","title":{"rendered":"Africa Set To Become A Digital Talent Powerhouse, According To Experts At Inaugural GITEX Global Leaders Vision Summit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa is poised to power the world\u2019s digital transformation with its huge young talent base leading an offshore services export revolution, according to the continent\u2019s technology experts.<\/p>\n

African government leaders and experts shared their insight on the continent\u2019s potential for exporting technology skills at the GITEX Global Leaders Vision conference, hosted at GITEX Global, at Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) until Thursday 21 October.<\/p>\n

Attendees at the Vision Africa conference heard how Egypt is in pole position to lead the charge, while\u00a0 Ghana is set to show the way on bridging the digital gender divide.<\/p>\n

HE Dr. Amr S. Talaat, Egypt\u2019s Minister of Communications& IT, revealed the country\u2019s ICT Vision 2030 aims to transform the nation into a world-leading digital services exporter, with the vision already producing results with 3,000 software engineers now exporting services to Europe\u2019s automotive industry with more to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy 2030 Egypt will be a digital services export centre backed by available talent,\u201d said Dr Talaat.<\/p>\n

Eng. Amr Mahfouz, CEO of Egypt\u2019s Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDO) said the country is now turning out 55,000 multi-lingual IT graduates each year and that the nation\u2019s 2021-2026 Offshore Strategy envisaged a tripling of digital exports over the next five years. He said the country\u2019s talent base is also now a magnet for inward investment.<\/p>\n

GHANA GOING GLOBAL<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ghana\u2019s Minister of Communications and Digitalisation, H.E Ursula OwusuEkuful was also bold in her predictions for the continent\u2019s young talent pool.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfrica will provide the digital workforce needs of the world in the next 20-30 years,\u201d she forecast, saying the Ghanaian government is working to halt a \u201cbrain drain,\u201d encouraging trained resources to \u201cstay in Ghana\u201d and is set on bridging the country\u2019s gender digital divide.<\/p>\n

Current initiatives, she said, include a light regulatory touch for business set-up, and a tripling of the nation\u2019s skills mentorship programme for girls and isolated communities.<\/p>\n

KENYAN KNOW-HOW<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Kenya, hopes are high on overturning the \u2018bricks and mortars\u2019 culture of industrialised nations to a knowledge-economy driven by mobility. \u201cMobile phones are the entry point to communications in Kenya,\u201d said Dr. Tonny K. Omwansa, CEO, Kenya National Innovation Agency who put the country\u2019s current mobile penetration at 103%, with some holding more than one SIM card. The innovation boss said healthcare, mobility and education are ripe for mobility disruption within Sub-Saharan Africa.<\/p>\n

SKILLED YOUTH: AFRICA\u2019S NEW WEALTH<\/strong><\/p>\n

Africa\u2019s growing pool of digitally skilled youth is the continent\u2019s new wealth potential and opens up a new opportunity frontier, according to LacinaKon\u00e9, Director General of Smart Africa, the not-for-profit alliance of 32 African countries looking to transform the continent into a single digital market.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are the youngest continent on the planet in that 70% of the African population is below 30 years of age which represents a huge untapped wealth resource,\u201d he explained. \u201c50% of mobile monetary transaction value emanates from Africa which only represents 1.5% of the digital economy \u2013 and this is where opportunity really lies,\u201d he asserted.<\/p>\n

\"\" \"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa is poised to power the world\u2019s digital transformation with its huge young talent base leading an offshore services export revolution, according to the continent\u2019s technology experts. African government leaders and experts shared their insight on the continent\u2019s potential for exporting technology skills at the GITEX Global Leaders Vision conference, hosted at GITEX Global, at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51851,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51850"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51853,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51850\/revisions\/51853"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}